The Mall in Castlebar is to have Christmas lights permanently installed on its trees over the next few years on a phased basis. Town manager Seamus Granahan presented a proposal to the members of Castlebar Town Council this week to have lights installed on the trees stretching from the corner where the Garda Station is located past the Court House towards the Motor Tax office. The cost of installing these lights, which will be kept on a permanent basis, will be a once off cost of €35,000, with maintenance costs going into the future.
Mr Granahan said that when it is completed, phasing in a similar programme of work on the other sides of The Mall would be looked at. The lighting of The Mall was an issue that the town manager said he would look at when it came to planning the Christmas lights in the town for this year at last January’s annual budget meeting. He also outlined at this week’s meeting that to light the streets in the town it would cost €17,000 this year, which included the lighting of 32 trees that had been put in throughout the centre of the town as part of the recent town centre regeneration project. When asked about the tender situation for these projects, Town engineer Sean Higgins told the meeting that nine different contractors had been asked to tender for the work and there had been a very poor response, but the tenders that were received were now under consideration.
