Get your designs up in lights in Boston this Christmas

Boston Borough Council's play and physical activities officerFran Taylor and town centre services manager Kristina Willoughby with some of the designs already submitted.

Members of the town centre team have been at the craft market today (Thursday) getting young and old alike to draw their seasonal designs onto A4 paper for the council’s alternative Christmas lights arrangements this year.

The plan is to project the designs from Oldrids onto the QD Store building down Strait Bargate, although the chosen building could be subject to change.

Boston Borough Council town centre services manager Kristina Willoughby said the stall today had ‘had a brilliant response’.

She said: “The feeling from the public we’ve drawn in has been really good.”

The communities designs are set to be switched on from December 1, and will be projected from 5-8pm with the rotation of images beginning again every hour.

A separate projection of professionally designed images will be displayed from Boots onto the former Exchange buildings - each rotation will last eight minutes and will run from 4.30-7.30pm every night from the Christmas Lights Switch-On on November 24.

The town nearly lost its Christmas lights earlier this year after Boston Borough Council’s Full Council switched off to the idea of providing funds in its annual budget.

Boston Town Area Committee however agreed to plug the gap with £35,000 of its own budget and a team was put aside to plan how to take the lights forward with the Boston Town Team from the Chamber of Commerce.

The previous cost was £146,822 over five years. With £20,000 of that provided by the Boston Improvement District’s levy on businesses and traders.

The idea to project designs onto empty shops was later brought back to the BTAC committee and agreed on.

The council has also got a number of local schools and centres involved.

If you would like to send in a design for the projection, you have until next Friday (November 18) to do so.

Designs must be completed on an A4 sheet, in felt tip and with the creators name and age on. Anyone can submit an image for consideration.

Take your designs in to the Boston Borough Council’s Municipal Buildings, on West Street, addressed to Play and Physical Activity Officer Francis Taylor.