"Opinion" letter in the Guernsey Press
22/10/2007
Festive Chairman responds to "Opinion" letter in the Guernsey Press entitled "Traders Should Pay for Lights" (18th October edition)
Festive Decor Chairman repsonds:
Dear Sir
Thank you for your letter regarding Christmas Lights funding which featured in the Guernsey Press on Thursday 18th October 2007. As Chairman of Festive Décor (the charity responsible for the Christmas lights fundraising and management) I am always pleased to receive feedback from the public, and your letter was no exception.
As you know in 2000 Festive Décor, in conjunction with Island fm, launched a major fundraising campaign which saw Guernsey businesses and the general public raise over £100,000.00. This allowed us to purchase a brand new, modern lighting display and install the infrastructure required for putting up the new lights. The lights that were purchased were specifically chosen for durability and energy efficiency.
On average the lights are up from early November until the following January – the coldest and windiest time of the year. As a result, each year they can suffer damage due to weather conditions - this is a common problem with large festive lighting displays. Since purchasing the new lights, due to financial constraints (the lights are 100% funded by charitable donations) we have, where possible, managed to carry out maintenance by using electrically skilled volunteers. However last year the lights were in such a poor state that they had to be sent back to the European manufacturers for an overhaul – this was an extremely costly exercise and left Festive Décors reserves thoroughly depleted.
With the exception of the 2000 campaign, the lights have always been funded almost entirely by the Town traders. Despite the enormous voluntary input from Festive Décor and the Young Business Group the “put up” and “take down” process is costly as it is necessary to hire appropriate access equipment (mechanical hoists) and qualified operators for approximately 4 Sundays in November. In fact it costs considerably more than the £10,000 per annum you estimated in your letter. Some of the traders are incredibly generous – it would be unfair to single anyone out by name but one local Town trader contributes approximately 10% of the overall cost in one go. This year, each business that becomes a Friend of the Lights will receive a certificate from Festive Décor to display prominently in their office or shop.
Unfortunately, for various reasons the traders donations have decreased over the past few years. If you walk through town today you will see that a number of the smaller local shops (often the most generous contributors) have been replaced by large UK retail outlets. This has had a dramatic impact on our trader donations because, put simply, the majority of the UK multiples do not contribute. It is extremely difficult for Festive Décor to reach the person holding the cheque book!
This, coupled with the large financial outlay we made last year on maintenance, has left us with a huge problem. How do we fund the lights this year and in years to come? Of course the volunteers at Festive Décor could have just made the decision to not put the lights up due to lack of funds. None of us wanted to do this though. We simply couldn’t bear the thought of not having lights in Town this year – consider the lack of atmosphere and think about how many thousands of children would miss Switch On Day in Town. Therefore we had little choice left other than to appeal to the public and businesses outside of Town.
It is my personal view that it is not unreasonable to seek financial assistance from individuals, families and businesses in and outside of Town. After all, it is not just the Town Traders who benefit from the lights – the Island benefits as a whole. In my opinion Town is a much nicer place at Christmas time whether you are shopping or not, and the lights are a contributing factor.
Festive Décor is a limited liability company with charitable status and a member of the Association of Guernsey Charities. It is staffed by volunteers.
Put simply, if we don’t raise enough money this year, there will be no lights.
Kind regards,
Martine Ellis
Chairman
Festive Décor Limited
C/O Chamber of Commerce, Suite 3, 16 Glategny Esplanade,
Tel: 01481 727483 Fax: 01481 710755
Member of the Association of Guernsey Charities
Patron – Sir Fabian Malbon
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