GREAT Malvern town centre is set to get illuminated with new Christmas lights this year, thanks to Malvern Town Council.

The council voted on Tuesday to provide all-new LED lights for shop fronts in the town centre at a cost of £15,935.

The decision follows criticisms that the town centre's seasonal lighting displays were lacklusture compared to the illuminations in Barnards Green and Malvern Link.

These two areas have already benefitted from town council money, with the Green getting £5,500 towards a permanent LED lighting in 2017, and another £5,600 being allocated to the Link last year.

A motion proposed by Cllr Hannah Campbell and seconded by Cllr Mark Harvey said: "Apart from new lights for the Christmas tree purchased in 2017, and new LED lights for the plane trees on Belle Vue Island, purchased in 2018, there has been little investment in lights for Great Malvern for a number of years.

"Comments were received in 2018 that the Christmas lights in Great Malvern were looking a bit tired, particularly when compared to other areas of the town.

"Great Malvern is larger than Link and Barnards Green and therefore costs are much higher.

"The lights, once erected, will stay in place permanently therefore avoiding the cost of erection and dismantling on an annual basis.

"A key part in this project would be the participation of local traders to liaise with all shop owners to facilitate the siting of these lights and where a power source can be located for each transformer.

"It should also be noted that the diminishing number of star lights are at the end of their useful life and new permanent lighting would avoid the need to replace these.

"It is hoped that these LED lights will have a useful life of 8-9 years and therefore provide a good return on investment.

"Funding is being sought from county and district councillors to help reduce costs to the town council."

The council's operations manager Charles Porter said that the LED lights proposed were extremely robust and able to stand up to bad weather conditions for many years.

The Christmas lights switch-on is one of the major events in the Great Malvern calendar.