Town's appeal for £50k and volunteers to keep Christmas lights ON

URGENT help is needed to keep a decades-long Christmas lights display going in a Cambridgeshire town.

- By KATIE GREEN

The Chatteris Christmas Light Committee has made an appeal for more volunteers and money for its Christmas lights display, which hopes to mark its 40th year in 2025.

Cambridgeshire County Council has told the committee that the 30-year-old electrical system needs to be completely replaced to meet British electrical standards.

The committee needs more than £50,000 to keep the display going.

If the system, which is made up of around 2,000m of cable and 250 sockets, is not replaced, then it could mark the end of the annual display.

Group trustee Simon Wilson said: "If we do not replace the system, then it will be the end of the Christmas lights, which would be a dire shame."

He continued: "In the 40 years we have been here, we have never had an accident and no problems. It would be such a shame for the light display to end.

"We are a small market town of around 5,500 homes, and we have three main things that happen in the town. These are Chatteris in Bloom, a summer festival and the Christmas lights.