Council backs plans for 'bigger' Christmas in Newcastle as concerns emerge over future funding
City leaders have backed plans for enhanced Christmas markets and New Year’s celebrations in Newcastle this year – though concerns have been aired about how the festive events will be paid for in future.
Newcastle City Council’s cabinet agreed funding on Monday night to go ahead with a “bigger and better” programme of Christmas activities in the city centre this winter. That will include a larger Christmas market than in 2023, which will involve stalls being set up around Grey’s Monument as well as along Grainger Street and Grey Street. The local authority also has plans to set up a free, family entertainment area on Old Eldon Square, which will include a Santa’s grotto, and have pledged an “improved, state of the art, spectacular installation and light show for New Year's Eve” that will build on the Laser Light City shows staged on the Quayside in recent years.
The council has now signed off on spending up to £500,000 of the civic centre’s cash reserves to fund the events, as well as awarding a grant of up to £250,000 to city centre Business Improvement District company NE1. Labour councillor Irim Ali told a cabinet meeting on Monday that the local authority wanted Christmas in Newcastle to be “bigger and better than ever” and to “spread the Geordie spirit” this holiday season.
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However, the city’s Lib Dem opposition aired fears about the future of the city’s Christmas activities – which are being funded for the second year running through “one-off” reserves rather than built into the cash-strapped council’s main budget. The cabinet had earlier heard how an expected £24 million of cuts would need to be made at the civic centre next year.
Lib Dem councillor Gareth Kane questioned whether this would be the last time reserves would be used to pay for the festive celebrations, with colleague Greg Stone asking what optimism the Labour-run administration had that they could be paid for out of mainstream budgets when an alternative funding source had not been found in the last 12 months.
Mark Nicholson, the council’s chief finance officer, replied: “It is not the first time, but clearly there is a finite capacity with reserves to fund this expenditure. We will need to think about alternative sources of funding for this area of activity going forward and that is the subject of a report to cabinet in the near future.”
Labour’s deputy council leader Karen Kilgour, who is chairing the cabinet while leader Nick Kemp takes a leave of absence, added: “There is a report under way which I understand will be coming to a future cabinet meeting in the next couple of months. Hopefully that will clarify things for you.”
The city centre’s Christmas lights switch-on has been scheduled for Tuesday, November 12, with the Christmas Market running from Saturday, November 16, until Christmas Eve. The council said that around 1.4 million Christmas market shoppers spent an average £23.44 per visit last year – with a total estimated £56.8 million spent in the wider city centre as a direct result of the Christmas market.