Christmas lights go up in Hastings town centre

Christmas lights have started going up in Queens Road. Picture: Maria Hudd

With six weeks and one day until Christmas Day, the new lights were installed in Queens Road on Monday afternoon (November 12).

Organised by Love Hastings, the town’s Christmas lights will be going up in a number of roads in the town ahead of the switch-on at the Hastings Christmas Spectacular on Friday (November 16).

You can read all about Friday’s event here: Hastings Christmas Spectacular 2018 - here’s all you need to know

Love Hastings said this year there will be Christmas lights in Robertson Street (new lights), Wellington Place, Castle Street, Queens Road (new lights), Priory Meadow (festoon lighting in Queens Square) and the bottom (pedestrianised part) of Cambridge Road.

Chloe Dyas, marketing and events coordinator at Love Hastings, said: “We have a long term plan to extend the Christmas lights programme, however at the moment a lot of the lamp columns are too old or can’t support the weight of the lights.

“We’re always in conversation with ESCC (East Sussex County Council), so that once a lamp column has been replaced, we can take the opportunity to add it to the programme.

“The lamp column Christmas lights are paid for by Hastings BID (via the town centre businesses who pay an annual levy for us to manage the town centre), with a contribution from Hastings Borough Council.”

Love Hastings said all the new lights have been purchased from Blachere, which is the largest Christmas light supplier in the country.

Love Hastings hopes the decision to buy the Christmas lights will see them save tens of thousands of pounds which can be used on other town centre projects.

Chloe added: “The lights have been picked to create a more consistent theme throughout the town, with a gold and silver colour scheme.

“The lights help to create a festive atmosphere that you can’t get online, and we’d like to encourage people to visit the town, shop local and support the town centre and its shops at this time of year.”

The Christmas tree in Robertson Street is being arranged by the Rotary Club of Hastings and Hastings Borough Council.