'Blooming heck': Why Lancashire County Council wants proof that hanging baskets and Christmas bunting will not topple lampposts

The lowest-tier local authorities in Fylde and Wyre will have to stump up £55 to Lancashire County Council to test any lighting column that is more than seven years old before permission will be granted for it to be decorated with seasonal adornments. They will also have to adhere to a maximum weight limit.

County Hall – which is responsible for the local road network in the two districts, but not Blackpool – says that it has always levied a charge for the assessments, which are conducted in order to protect the public from anything that could lead to the “catastrophic failure” of a streetlight and cause it to come crashing down.

However, several authorities say that they have never been billed for the tests before – and claim they only discovered that they were liable for the payments in the wake of revised guidance issued by the county council, which the authority says reflects the latest national advice about exactly what can be attached to lampposts and how.

Some of the county’s smallest councils say that they were also taken by surprise when they learned that their hanging basket displays must not exceed 20kg – a stipulation that County Hall again says has long been in place.

A number of Lancashire’s town and parish authorities claim that a combination of the practical and financial considerations they are now facing could force them to scale back their floral flourishes – in the very year that they wanted to make picturesque memories during the Queen’s platinum jubilee celebrations.

Lancashire County Council’s cabinet member for highways and transport, Charlie Edwards, told a recent cabinet meeting at County Hall that it would be unfair for residents living in parts of the county without parish or town councils to be “subsidising” the sprucing up of areas where additional council tax is charged for that very purpose.

Parish and town authorities are able to levy what is known as a precept on the council tax bills of people living in those places in order to fund improvements to the public realm.

However, the smaller councils see it differently – including Fleetwood Town Council, whose chair, Cheryl Raynor said that the lamppost tests were a “massive cost that we haven’t budgeted for”.

“You are getting penalised for being a town council. People in parished areas already pay a precept, so it’s like paying twice.

“We try to do extra things that the county council and Wyre Council don’t pay for, but this charge will eat into the budgets we have for those other things, like our ‘in bloom’ activities,” said Cllr Raynor.

She added that the cost of the assessments would also have to be considered when the council was deciding how to decorate the town in the depths of winter as well as the height of summer – because it usually hangs Christmas displays from almost 50 lampposts, a seasonal statement that it had hoped to expand upon this year.

Even the town’s Remembrance Day commemorations could be hit, as the council had this year planned to increase the number of poppies it hangs in public places – many of which would be placed on lighting columns.

Lancashire County Council told The Gazette that it was “very unlikely” that lampposts would have to be tested to see if they could bear the load of “lightweight plastic poppies” – but parish and town councils would still have to contact County Hall to discuss their plans “as no two sites are the same”.

According to the county council’s new streetlamp attachment guidance document, there is “a common misconception that lighting columns can automatically accommodate attachments of any type, size or weight”.

It adds: “This assumption is generally incorrect, as not all columns are the same and many are unsuitable due to their design, age and material type. A relatively light addition – such as a sign – can result in considerable extra load being exerted in a strong wind, which can subsequently affect a column’s structural stability, leading to catastrophic failure, damage, injury or death.”

Attachments are permitted only on steel lighting columns and where no other additions are already present. The lampposts will have to be rated as being in “as new” condition – either by virtue of them being less than seven years old or by passing a structural condition test that shows any corrosion of the steel column amounts to less than 10 percent.

Depending on the outcome of the assessment, a re-test will be ordered for between three and six years – meaning that the cost to parish and town councils will not be an annual one.

Many hanging baskets come with special reservoirs which store water and release it to the plants over time – a feature that adds to their weight and risks making them heavier than the 20 kg – or 3.1 stone – limit.

‘WE CAN’T LET BASKETS AND BUNTING PUT PUBLIC SAFETY AT RISK’

Labour’s deputy opposition group leader on Lancashire County Council told a recent cabinet meeting that it was “fundamentally wrong” for parish and town councils to have to pay for lamppost tests if they wanted to use the columns to brighten up their areas.

Lorraine Beavers said that members of authorities like Fleetwood Town Council – on which she also sits – work hard all year round to keep their localities looking good, including at Christmas.

She said that they would now have to “pay for the privilege” of putting up enhancements such as Christmas lights to “make our towns look better” - a commitment to colour that she said would cost Fleetwood more than £1,300 when the festive season comes round.

“You are taking away the ability of our town and parish councils to engage with the public and bring the public out. We have had two years of pandemic [and now] it’s the Queen's jubilee.

The highways and the lighting is the responsibility of Lancashire County Council,” County Cllr Beavers added.

However, Charlie Edwards, the Conservative cabinet member for highways and transport, defended the authority’s stance – and said that hanging items from streetlamps was far from free of risk.

He said that “windage area”, as well as weight, had to be considered.

“A hanging basket can be different to a massive flag in terms of the implications it would have on a particular lighting column.

“As the steel columns corrode from the inside out, the only way we could check that [they are] suitable to support the additional weight is by undertaking a column test so that we can identify the level of internal corrosion – and where the level of corrosion is not suitable, then we have to obviously make the judgement as a matter of risk and public safety.

“I think it’s right that we have this consistent approach across the county – it’s all about public safety and nothing else,” said County Cllr Edwards.

County Hall’s guidance on hanging items from lampposts covers both permanent and temporary additions. As well as hanging baskets and bunting, banners, defibrillators and speed indicator devices all come under the scope of the document.

There are rules about how high any additions can or must be, as well as their placement in relation to other street furniture, like traffic lights.

Signage for events gets a particular mention, including a warning that putting signs on lampposts – or elsewhere within the “highway limits” – without permission could lead to a fine of up to £2,500.

Public liability insurance of at least £10m to cover a single incident is required for anyone applying to add an attachment to a lighting column.

Responding to the issues raised by the parish and town councils in this report, a spokesman for Lancashire County Council said: “We have an ongoing programme of testing to ensure the safety of our street lighting columns, and have written to parish councils about an update to the guidance we have in place for anyone wanting to attach items to them.

“The strength of columns varies depending upon where they are in their lifecycle, and it’s vital that they are tested before anything is attached to them for safety. We also check that event organisers have the necessary insurance in place for their activities.

“We have always required applicants to fund the testing of columns before attaching anything to them as the county council does not set aside resources to assist with events and activities being carried out by third parties.”