CINDERFORD businesses and councillors are banding together in a bid to make this year’s Christmas lights better than ever.

Businessman Neill Ricketts, who runs advanced materials firm Versarien, has bought at least £50,000 worth of lights from Gloucester City Council for use in the Forest town.

The lights could be spread across other areas in the district, according to Mr Ricketts, who was speaking at Cinderford Town Council last week.

It could make for a spectacular event, with some of the lights being 8ft tall and 20ft long and the town council’s events committee and Mr Ricketts are hard at work to create a ‘special’ event throughout the town.

“The situation is that Gloucester City Council are renewing their lights,” he said.

“They’ve spent approximately £75,000 on new lights and the old lights were going to be scrapped.

“As a result of the consultation we had last year we were unable to put up a display on a lamppost, the council, through the Local Enterprise Partnership contacts, have been very, very helpful and have made their old lights available to us.

“There are a substantial number of lights we could use. We have to be realistic about what we can deliver this year but the idea is that we use what we can salvage from Gloucester with the lights we would normally have in order to build a display and an event which is special.

“Some of the lights are 8ft tall and 20ft long; at some stage it was £50,000-£60,000 worth of lights and to see them thrown away would be a terrible shame.

“I would purchase the lights from Gloucester City Council and effectively gift those to the town council.

“The only caveat is we have to be careful about how this appears to the other Forest towns because there could be a bit of a backlash to the city council for Cinderford being chosen and if there is anything left we could offer that to the other town councils and gather them back at the end of the display.

“It is a clearly ambitious plan and we are short of time and we are going to require a lot of help.

"We have to deliver it now.”

•THE Palace Cinema on Belle Vue Road have mooted the idea of offering a Christmas film free of charge for children.

Landlords of empty shops in the town will also be approached to ask if they wish to decorate the store fronts.