Discussions are continuing to try and find a way to put up the Christmas lights in Rye this year. As we reported last week, there are currently no plans to hang the decorations in spite of attempts to find a solution.
A packed meeting at the town hall on Monday October 13 heard passionate calls for the string lighting to go up this Christmas, as they have each year for almost a decade. To make the point, some members of the public wore battery powered fairy lights as they heard the Rye Town Council debate.
The reasons why there the lights won’t be installed this year are extremely complicated said Cllr Sophie Thorpe, one of the organisers of the Rye Christmas Festival. Reading a statement, she listed issues including insurance and concerns there are not enough tested sockets to safely power the lights. “A lot of effort has been made but we’ve begged and borrowed for power sources for too long. Just along the High Street we need 60 sockets – and that’s before you think about the roads around the town hall and Cinque Ports Street.”
She proposed finding funding to store the lights this year, in the hope of everyone in the town working together to find a solution for 2026.
However local firms are very keen to make the lights happen now – and contribute towards their funding – said Fran Huxley from Simply Rye. “So many people have told us they want to make it work this year. If visitors come to Rye this Christmas and see there aren’t any lights they won’t come back next year.”
“Businesses are coming forward,” she told the meeting at the town hall. “We’ve had an offer to pay for the insurance and I’ve been getting quotes for assessing the power, making it compliant and hanging the lights. A professional firm has told me it will do all it can to put them up if we can get the funding.”
“We will financially contribute and I’m sure other local businesses will too,” said Michael Jones from Merchant and Mills. “If we pool resources we can see what is achievable this year.”
Volunteers to help put up the lights were also coming forward, the meeting heard.
If the lights don’t go up in Rye this year, a number of Christmas events are still planned. “St Mary’s has the Christmas Tree festival starting late next month,” said Roy Abel, encouraging everyone to take part. A carol service is also happening outside The George.
Rye Chamber of Commerce, which has also been trying to find a solution, is suggesting a . Christmas Window Competition. A similar idea in Tenterden is regarded as very successful in bringing visitors to the town.
Closing the discussion, Mayor Andy Stuart thanked everyone for taking part and encouraged people coming forward with ideas to meet at the town hall. “A meeting to get things moving,” he said to applause.
Image Credits: Peter Connock , Nick Forman .
“Will You Turn That Bloody Light Off?” . Relax, It’s Just Rye.
Blackpool, the land of donkey rides and deep-fried everything, is spending £2 million on its Illuminations this year. That’s six miles of lights, four months of glow, powered by 100% renewable energy and funded like clockwork:
• 62% from Blackpool Council
• 11% from Arts Council England
• 8% from business sponsorships
• 7% from public donations
• 4% from merchandise and events
• 8% from other grants
They’ve slashed energy use by 75% since 1999. Say what you like about neon chips and kiss-me-quick hats, they know how to fund a lightbulb. And it works: 4 million visitors, £300 million in spending. That’s more than Rye’s entire district earns in a year.
Meanwhile in Rye, the only thing lighting up the High Street this December is the moon and the occasional vape cloud. No lights. No festival. No pudding race. Just rusted brackets, borrowed sockets, and a council budget tighter than a pub landlord’s grip on the last pork scratchings.
Rye Town Council allocated £0 for Christmas lights. But don’t worry, there’s £2,000 for ghost tours and £1,850 for mayoral allowances. Maybe the mayor can haunt the High Street with a torch and a festive hat.
So while Blackpool blazes with civic pride and cold hard cash, Rye’s festive spirit this year is powered by AA batteries and blind optimism. Still, moonlight over Mermaid Street is free, and doesn’t need a risk assessment.
And if anyone dares to hang a bulb this year, don’t be surprised if someone shouts:
“Will you turn that bloody light off, it’s not Blackpool Illuminations, you know !”
Rye “Don’t worry, mate. It never was.”
According to your figures, Blackpool’s businesses are putting up £160,000 a year to fund the illuminations, no doubt because they see the benefits to their businesses. Huge benefits too! If they get back just 8% of that £300M, that’s £2,400,000, a 1400% return on their investment.
Forgive me if I’m wrong, but I didn’t see many Rye merchants at that meeting. Simply Rye and Merchant & Mills were the only ones who said out loud that they were ready to contribute money to the £5,000 or so needed to get the lights professionally installed and insured, although I imagine most of the other people who came to the meeting will also help out. But that’s only a very small percentage of Rye’s retail businesses — the resistance to the Business Interest District that’s emerged in the last few months is all about not wanting to pay a couple of hundred quid a year toward precisely such things as lights. If every business owner who profits from our visitors had turned up and we’d had a whip-round, we’d have probably raised the £5,000 on the spot.
The lights won’t be of much benefit to me as an ordinary Rye resident with a non-tourist-facing business, so why am I expected to subsidize them through the town council? I already do my bit free of charge toward Rye’s Christmas in various ways, as do many, many volunteers who reap no financial benefit from it.
I applaud Simply Rye and Merchant & Mills for their willingness to help, and their common sense for realizing that a miserable Rye Christmas will mean that the visitors find somewhere else to go next year. The tourist trade is so important to Rye that we now have a high street (and various other locations) devoted almost exclusively to it, so isn’t it time we had a bit more merchant participation rather than jeering at a town council that’s got other priorities?
Good point.
Really unhelpful and inaccurate comments. So easy to criticise and offer zero solutions and not even a commitment to volunteer and/or donate money.
Bubbs – the £2000 for Ghost Walks is an estimate of my wages for leading the Walks next year. If you look at the top half of the budget, you’ll see an estimated income to the Council of £5,000 as ticket sales from the Walks. They generate approx £3000 profit for the council every year, which goes towards the costs of the services to the town which the Council provide.
why is only rye having these problems other towns dont. there has been 12 months to get these problems sorted but all left to the last minute no doubt. plus these problems have been on going from other years they are not going to go away. sort them do a go fund me page if the council really that tight like scrouge ba humbug its supposed to be christmas, good will to all men. do you not wont a town that makes money at christmas and the lead up. tourist will just go elsewhere.
I’m more than happy to make a donation towards getting the work done if it means we can have Christmas lights this year.
Is there a funding page or something similar for contributions?
The Christmas Festival Committee has folded, the Council can’t insure a string of lights, and the BID is still somewhere on the horizon (possibly arriving after the next solar eclipse).
• Is it time for Rye to stop relying on borrowed sockets and festive hope?
• Could the Council support a temporary, community-led group, like the proposed Rye Events & Illumination Partnership (REIP), to coordinate events, secure funding, and actually get things done for 2025 and 2026?
Questions for the public meeting:
• What’s the current state of Rye’s electrical infrastructure, are we still running on extension cords and crossed fingers?
• Will the Council commit to upgrading sockets and supporting insurance if professionals are involved?
• Can we expect any seed funding or matched donations to kickstart efforts, or is the festive budget still stuck behind ghost tours (fantastic effort I must add) and mayoral hats?
• Is there a plan to help volunteers coordinate safely, or are we just hoping for a ladder and a miracle?
• What’s the actual strategy to bridge the gap until the BID is live, besides waiting for Santa to sort it?
Rye deserves more than battery-powered window displays and wistful memories. Let’s plug in some leadership, and maybe a few lights while we’re at it, eh my landlubbers. Where are the Pirates when we need them, they organise a good gig.
Good point Gilly, am sure that not just Rye businesses would be prepared to donate. Thank you to those who have tirelessly given their time to erect and make sure the lights have gone ahead each year. It sounds dreadful but I just thought there was funding provided by the town council. Let’s not miss this opportunity so let’s get donating!
It’s all a bit late isn’t it, you need to take a leaf out of the pirates, bonfire boys and other successful groups book and plan ahead, the last two weeks in October is when you should be putting the finishing touches not having discussions on why it’s not going happen.
Forget this year and you’ve got 14 months to get it all together.
Good luck and I hope it all works out whatever happens.