New decorative lighting is set to return to Burnham-On-Sea’s seafront after town councillors gave the go-ahead at their latest meeting.
At a virtual meeting of March’s full council meeting, Burnham and Highbridge town councillors decided to proceed with the revamp of lighting.
“Decorative seafront lighting will be strung between the existing lampposts at a cost of £10,708,” it was resolved.
The proposals have been welcomed by tourism businesses along the seafront who say having attractions such as lighting make Burnham’s Esplanade more inviting.
The seafront used to have colourful decorative lighting attached to lamposts but many were damaged during a big storm in 2007.
During this month’s meeting, the council agreed to “request that the CIM (EDF Community Impact Mitigation) board permits the reallocation of the grant funds earmarked for work on seafront shelters to be spent on other approved projects within the Burnham Evolution brief,” including the seafront decorative lighting.
The Burnham Evolution Business Plan was written in 2018 to apply for £1.5m grant
funding. However, Burnham’s £1million application made to the Coastal Communities Fund was not successful.
The Burnham Evolution project was instead granted just £350,000 from the Community Impact Mitigation Fund, resulting in the overall project being subsequently downsized to focus instead on enhancements to the Princess Theatre and seafront.
The Community Impact Mitigation Fund cash was awarded in late 2019 with strict allocation of budgets to a list of projects. Of the budget, £40k was allocated to undertaking work on the seafront shelters – the original plan had been to demolish the block-built South Esplanade shelters and replace them with elevated types in keeping with those on the North Esplanade – however the overall final sum of money awarded was not enough to undertake the works.
During 2018, Sedgemoor District Council undertook repair works to all shelters, meaning that other than cleaning – to be carried out under the council’s maintenance budget – there is little opportunity to use the £40k on the shelters. Of the £40,000 CIM funding allocated, £4,192 has been committed to shelter adjacent to the play area, leaving a balance of £35,808.
The Town Council’s seafront sub-committee has considered the original business plan and the current funded projects. It has recognised that many of the budgets applied for in 2018 were estimates and, whilst there is a surplus amount of money allocated to shelters, other projects that can proceed face a shortfall in funds.
The sub-committee, with the approval of the chairman of the Town Improvements Committee and the chairman of the town council, is making a direct recommendation to the full council that it approves an application is made to the CIM board to reallocate the remaining shelter funds to these projects, sharing the £35,808:
- The Burnham coach project requires a dedicated drop-off area with a coach driver’s building (complete with power supply & heating) which has been allocated funding of £15,100.
- The seawall art project, on The Esplanade footpath side, will see art of a professional standard created with an allocated funding of £10,000.
- And the decorative seafront lighting will see lighting strung between the existing lampposts (including a provisional sum for any power supplies needed) at a cost of £10,708.
Approval was given during the meeting to the Town Clerk to administer an application to the CIM (EDF Community Impact Mitigation) Board for an adjustment in agreed funding budgets.
Cllr Sue Harvey noted that the work to introduce the new decorative lighting will need to be timed after Sedgemoor District Council’s separate work to repair unlit lights along the South Esplanade, which we recently featured here.
