At a meeting of the full town council this week, the town’s environment working group have recommended switching from standard glass bulbs to LED lights for the Christmas display in an attempt to save energy and money.

Coun Grace Gorski and member of the environment working group said: “It would be both an economically and environmentally friendly move to consider switching to much more efficient LED lights.”

Last year the town’s Christmas lights display, which features 5,200 bulbs, ran for seven and a half hours every day between December 6 and January 2 using 15, 797kwh at an estimated cost of more than £1,500.

According to the town council clerk and working group member, Claire Binnington, replacing the glass bulbs with LED lights would reduce that cost to just under £70.

Mrs Binnington said: “This is the first thing that we are doing to reduce our carbon footprint. At the moment we have 5,200 glass bulbs that need replacing every year so what we are looking to do is replace them with robust LED lights that are 0.65 watts each which is going to drastically reduce the cost.”

Despite the group initially proposing a gradual replacement the town council have agreed that a complete overhaul would be the most cost effective approach.

Coun Steve Poessl said: “Personally I would rather see them all replaced so the council can save a lot of money in the next few years.”

Mrs Binnington will now look into the possibility of selling the old glass bulbs to neighbouring parishes, the cost of a complete replacement and how much will be saved over the next few years with the findings being reported back to a full town council meeting at a future date.

The Driffield Town Council Environmental Working Group was set up in June with the aim of working to protect, improve and enhance the town’s environment and they are now on the look out for new members.

Anyone interested in getting involved with the Environment Working Group is asked to contact Claire Binnington, tel (01377) 254160.

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