Residents in Ramsey have expressed disappointment in the town’s Christmas lights, with some taking to social media in criticism of the commissioners behind the display.

Following an investment of £26,000 in 2019, in the last couple of years commissioners there have opted to divert a relatively small portion of their budget to annual improvements - rather than the revamp called for by some on social media.

’Lights are pretty dismal again’, commented one person; ’is Ramsey’s Christmas spirit forever going to go up in smoke?’, asked another.

While the pandemic has put paid to any noticeable changes to the town’s display, with only essential maintenance being undertaken - should the commission be considering a different approach?

The commissioners’ finance lead Juan McGuinness says it’s a topic being discussed in a Northern Irish town he recently visited, where last year commissioners controversially voted to make a large investment in their Christmas display: ’When I was in Lisburn there’s this wonderful light and music show they’ve got, it lights up to the [Christmas] tunes in time.

’And I was mildly impressed, until I discovered they cost half a million pounds to put up - which is an astronomical amount of money which obviously is not within Ramsey’s budget.

’As much as people have said "Oh, you could do more", if we turned around and spend 100-200 thousand pounds, I think there’d be an awful lot of backlash and rightly so in these difficult times. I think we’ve got be to very careful when we’re dealing with ratepayers’ money, and you’ve go to me sure you get the maximum value and bang for your buck.’

He continued: ’[The lights have] got to be able to withstand winds, the elements, possibly snow.

’And they’ve got to survive multiple years [of] being taken down and put back up, which comes with a cost as well.

’I would love to see festoons all the way along the street, I don’t want to see lights just focused around one or two areas - but the wider and the broader and you go, and the higher up you go, the more expensive it all becomes.’

Geoff Court is the lead member for leisure; he says it’s not simply a question of lights, but the experience as a whole, and extending the display into the new year could be considered in future: ’Obviously you also need to look at the energy costs associated with that, the associated light pollution, [and] the general carbon footprint of running those lights and using that electricity for a longer period of time.

’Do you spend the money to have the same lights on longer, or do you spend the money to have a better array of new and different lights for that shorter amount of time?’

Mr Court added that on switch-on night, ’I didn’t see a single frown.

’I saw a lot of smiles, a lot of happy children - a lot of happy adults.

’And it was very, very important for our independent retail sector, we saw a lot of people come spend money, go to the restaurants, grab a coffee, grab a bite to eat’.