Solar powered
Christmas trees are seeing a massive surge in popularity among local
authorities across the UK as councils seek new ways to minimise public
spending.
The news comes from
the country's largest provider of plant displays, Plantscape, which has seen
sales of its cost-effective alternative to traditional yuletide offerings
double since 2015.
The company, which has
been providing floral displays to the public sector for the past 16 years and
solar powered trees for a decade, is anticipating even greater interest in its
products as councils wise up to the financial, energy saving and hassle-free
benefits of a new style of festive illumination.
Plantscape's
operations manager Pete Halls explained: "We started providing the trees
back in 2007 to offer councils a way of decorating their streets for Christmas
without incurring the cost of erecting wires and electricity, which can run
into tens of thousands of pounds. In fact, the average cost of a traditional
Christmas lighting display, including insurance, is around £40,000 - with ours
coming in at a fraction of that.
"In addition,
there's no need to pay for electricity and, because they don't need to be wired
up to the mains, the trees can be installed almost anywhere which means places
which may previously not have been covered by a traditional display can now be
illuminated.
"Added to that,
councils using our hanging baskets and lamppost planters will already have the
Christmas tree mounting brackets in place, which saves time and money when we
come to swap the summer displays for the winter ones.
Councils and Business
Improvement Districts opting for a solar powered festive season come from as
far afield as Oban and Dunlop in Scotland, Hythe on the South Coast, Clacton in
the East and Cornelly in Wales, with
more than 2,000 on display countrywide.
For some, the choice
was between facing a dark Christmas or plumping for the solar option, as the
Clacton Town Partnership's Lisa Andrews explained.
"The use of solar
lighting in Clacton-on-Sea has resolved a big problem as the local council has
been unable to fund replacement electrical fittings on our lampposts and
without this solar solution, Clacton may well have been without Christmas lights
at all."
In Oban, which has
enjoyed the solar powered trees for the third Christmas running, the display
plays a vital role in helping the local economy, as Andrew Spence, chief
executive of BID4Oban, explained.
"Initially I was
extremely sceptical about the prospect of solar-powered Christmas trees because
we get so little daylight, but they give us a display for five hours and have
been extremely successful over the past few years.
"They help us to
light up streets where we haven't got the infrastructure for traditional
decorations and where we couldn't afford lights.
"The switch-on is
one of the single biggest days in the retail calendar and it allows us to keep
people in the town for longer, so having a good display is hugely important and
the solar powered trees are a vital part of that."
Cornelly Town council
clerk Dawn Evans explained: "The trees were a lovely addition to the
festive display at Cornelly and Mawdlam. They were appreciated by young and
old. Many positive comments were received on the beautiful display they
provided when lit up during the December evenings."
