Agenda item

The Leader of the Council.

The Leader welcomed the petitioner and Redhill resident, Mr Elliott Wragg, to the meeting to present the petition – ‘Save Christmas in Redhill’ – which had been signed by over 200 people both online and in hard copy. The petition asked for funding to support the cost of Christmas decorations in Redhill town centre as the regeneration and investment in the town continued to make it the focal point for East Surrey.

Mr Wragg thanked Executive Members for considering the petition which he was presenting as a substitute on behalf of the petitioner, Ms Jen Orchard. She could not attend the meeting and had sent her apologies. He thanked residents who had signed the petition which was a very important matter to Redhill residents. He said that a few days after the petition had started, the funding gap had been solved. A Christmas tree was up in the town centre which was great to see. A meeting of local businesses that make up the Redhill Business Guild had been very informative. Mr Wragg thanked all parties who had contributed to that event.

As a resident who has recently moved to the area, he raised other issues that concerned neighbours such as the parking outside McDonalds, temporary closure of toilets in the park and lack of monitored CCTV for the town centre. He appreciated the complexities of these different items but said he hoped that these could be solved with ingenuity and cooperation within the council and local businesses to look forward to a happier, safer and brighter Redhill for the 50th anniversary of the borough.

The Leader, Councillor Biggs, said that planning work for Christmas celebrations in the borough by the Council and local businesses started at the beginning of the year. It was important that the Council gets right how it spends its limited resources across all the other major town centres. For example, there are over 30 shopping parades across Banstead, Redhill, Reigate and Horley and it would not be a simple solution or fair to other areas to provide funding for one but not another. He welcomed calls or emails from residents if there were issues, before a public petition. The draft budget demonstrated how the Council would need to stop doing some of the services it was doing in order to fund festive lights. In past years, some funding had been secured just after the Covid-19 pandemic. Previously Surrey County Councillors in Redhill had also contributed to the Redhill Christmas lights using the SCC community fund. Redhill Business Guild as well as other town centre organisations had also secured discretionary funding for improving the vitality of town centres.

He noted that partnership working with local businesses generally helped to fund Christmas lights and decorations. The Belfry Shopping Centre and the Redhill Business Guild had worked together on this although he acknowledged there had been a recent change of ownership of The Belfry so there had been a slow start, but this was now resolved. In other areas, for example in Horley, the Horley Business Guild and the Horley Association of Traders had started fundraising for Christmas lights from April.

There were no further comments from Executive Members.

Visiting Members made the following observations:

·        Local businesses in Redhill - the business community had funded the large Christmas tree that was now up in Redhill town centre. Support had been given to the Belfry Shopping Centre manager to bring the business community together to fund the decorations. Local taxi companies and The Light cinema had come forward and there was hope that more businesses would offer support, such as Sainsburys, which is Redhill’s largest retailer. In the past, some local Surrey County Councillors had part contributed to the decorations using the community fund which had been available to them as County Councillors.

·        Christmas hope – the Christmas message should be less about festive lights and more a story of hope. Christmas was about building a sense of wellbeing and shared beliefs. The Council should continue to invest in and recognise the meaning of Christmas and other faiths. Residents were facing fuel poverty and cost of living pressures so needed to face challenging times together.

·        Banstead Christmas lights – in the north of the Borough, it was noted that shopkeepers in Banstead village had found it difficult to continue to provide funding that they had done over previous years. Christmas lights had been supported by a similar county council grant from the Banstead county councillor and an appeal by the Residents’ Association to support the Christmas lights.

·        Redhill Business Guild - as a result of the publicity around the petition, new businesses had joined Redhill Business Guild which had been a positive development.

The Leader, Councillor Biggs, thanked local support, The Belfry Centre Manager, Andy Nash, and Chair of the Redhill Business Guild, for the work that they had done on planning for Christmas in the town. The Council had invested huge amounts of money into Redhill redevelopment. The town was going from strength to strength and residents and visitors could look forward to taking part in the coming Christmas festivities.

It was RESOLVED – that the Executive:

(i)               Noted the petition and recommended that the approach the Council has to supporting Christmas activities remains unchanged.