Light shed on sums spent on illuminations

GREATER Manchester's 10 councils are set to spend around more than half a million pounds on Christmas lights this year.

- JOSEPH TIMAN

Manchester council puts more money towards the decorations than any other local authority in England, while Stockport has also budgeted in excess of £150,000. However, most town halls spend much less, with Trafford allocating no money for the festive lights.

The data has been obtained by Hexo Electrical Testing who submitted Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to more than 500 local authorities across the UK. Based on the figures from those who responded at least £12.7m of taxpayers' money has been budgeted for the installation, de-installation and hire of Christmas light displays across the UK, a small decrease of 0.49 per cent compared to 2023.