Festoon lights to be installed in town park after two ‘difficult’ years

FESTOON lights will be installed in the King George V Park, bringing a ‘difficult’ two years of discussion to an end. 

At the asset management and amenities meeting on Monday 9th October, town councillors voted in support of the project, but the process was still not plain sailing as they went against legal advice from the clerk to wait until the tender process finished on 20th October. 

Councillors approved local lighting experts Light Fantastic to install the lights in the park and for LED lights at the Adventure Centre to be upgraded, sprayed black and replaced with new lighting heads.  

In total, the project will cost £29,800, opposed to the initial £68,000 which was set aside to purchase ‘swan neck’ lighting columns earlier this year. 

Five councillors voted in support of festoon lighting, which follows a poll created by Melksham News, that revealed the community was in favour of this style of lighting, when a sample display was recently installed in the park by Light Fantastic. 

Urging town councillors to support the scheme and move ‘discussion into action’ Melksham’s mayor, cllr Simon Crundell read a statement from the chair of the committee, cllr Tom Price, who was absent. His comments included, “We’ve had a difficult two years getting the lights through and we need to move discussion into action. Let’s finally put the project to bed and deliver the right thing for our town.” 

Legal Tender 

However, not all councillors voted in support of moving forward with the scheme, as the council had not completed the legal tender process, due to end on 20th October, and only had one quote.  

The town council’s clerk, Linda Roberts said, “[The legal advice is that] the council must ensure it follows its own procurement process for the award of contracts, as dictated by the council’s adopted financial regulations.” 

Melksham mayor cllr Simon Crundell voted against the scheme given the legal advice. “Personally, I think for the sake of two weeks, I do not think it is worth the risk to the council to pass this tonight as opposed to in two weeks’ time,” he said. 

Questions were raised among councillors as to why only one quote had been returned, when the tender process started in August. 

Linda Roberts said officers had only asked for other quotes to be submitted a week before the asset management and amenities meeting. 

“That’s just ridiculous that we’ve had to wait a month,” said cllr Jennie Westbrook. “I just think it is borderline on a bit ridiculous. We asked Paul [Weymouth] and he’s gone and done the job we’ve asked him to do which is great, but if you’re going to need more tenders why was that not asked at the same time?” 

To see the project finished and ensure the ‘park is done and done properly’ cllr Jon Hubbard urged councillors to vote on his motion for festoon lights to be installed. 

He said, “If we go out and say we are going to place this order today, we are at risk that people may say you have not followed your procurement policy correctly. First of all, the procurement that we went out to undertake the first time, was for specific criteria. The council has chosen not to progress with that method of lighting the park, therefore, as far as I am concerned, that previous tender process is finished. We couldn’t afford it. We are not doing that now, so we are now starting almost a new process of saying ‘festoon lighting.’ 

“The council does have within its financial procedures, powers in exceptional circumstances to take the price of just one supplier. We have exercised our powers under that, on many occasions in the past.  

“I am [aware] of the great challenge in getting the prices we did get for the lighting columns. I would remind council we never had three quotes from them, we only had two quotes for them in the end. Therefore, after careful consideration, I believe it would be lawful for this council to go ahead and place this contract this evening, it falls under the tender threshold. Therefore, my motion stands that we award the contact this evening.” 

When asked if there was a risk to the council, if councillors voted the motion through and went against their own procurement policy, Linda Roberts said, “There is not an awful lot that can happen.” 

Councillors proceeded with voting for the motion and festoon lights will now be installed around all routes in the King George V Park, fulfilling the town council’s aims of wanting to improve the safety of residents using the park when it’s dark.