Burnham-on-Crouch Town Council is drawing up plans to upgrade its infrastructure to put on an improved Christmas lights display this year.

The plans emerged in a council meeting on Tuesday evening (20 July), when Councillor Vanessa Bell said: "We want to have fantastic Christmas lights, but in order to do so, we have to upgrade our infrastructure."

The discussion took place in response to a report from the temporary town clerk Joanna Jeffrey and Councillor Kelvin Coles on the costs of undertaking column upgrades for the Christmas lights.

The initial plans, which involved Christmas lights stretching to the train station, were deemed too expensive by the council after a detailed debate.

Councillor Mary-Ann Munford said: "I think we need to be ambitious here and go for something really special after Covid."

She continued: "We should take a risk on spending some decent money on something that will be really special for the town."

Councillor Bell, who is also the town mayor, said: "It's a lot of the taxpayers' money."

The council resolved to draw up plans for the Christmas lights to cover a smaller area.

Councillor Bell said: "I propose a working group to go back to the drawing board and come back with a financially-viable revised proposal that will still be good."

She said that she expects this to happen within the next fortnight.

Councillor Coles seconded the proposal, and the council unanimously voted it through.

The group will feed back the revised proposal, which will then be decided on.

Councillor Bell said: "We will have lights. We will go to the ball."