DARTMOUTH Town Council is refusing to help pay for taking down the new Christmas lights, which it has emerged cost more to install than to buy.

Just weeks after the town's light show was put up in a fanfare of glory following Nigel Way's Snowball fundraising event at the Flavel, the festive illuminations will cost £2,000 to be dismantled.

But nobody seems to be really sure who organised the street displays in the first place – businessman Mr Way or the Dartmouth Business Improvement District – and criticisms have been made as to why quotations were not sought for the work in the first place.

Cllr Chris Smith said: 'It beggars belief that businessmen in this town have gone ahead and agreed to have these lights installed without a budget. I find the whole thing unbelievable.'

He was speaking at Monday's meeting of the town council where a request was read from hotelier Mr Way, who is also chairman of the BID, seeking financial assistance towards the cost of taking down the lights.

The total purchase cost of the illuminations, along with their £8,000 installation fee and removal, is close to £16,000, part of which will be met by the £8,500 raised at the Snowball event before Christmas and £4,500 of which Mr Way has paid out of his own pocket, the meeting was told.

But the town council has already spent around £6,000 on its own illuminations this year, which included new LEDs around the Boatfloat and lights and a Christmas tree in the Old Market.

And a full survey carried out a few years ago by councillors estimated the whole town could had seen lights installed, along with a three-year warranty, for £22,000.

At a meeting before Christmas, the council did agree to take ownership of the new lights, but councilors had made it clear that because of insurance reasons they did not want to become involved in putting up and taking down the new displays.

And Cllr Tessa de Galleani reminded the meeting: 'It wasn't supposed to cost us anything.'

She added that in her opinion in the prettiest streets for Christmas decorations – Foss Street and Anzac Street – traders had paid for their own lights.

Cllr Roger Chilcott, the town council representative on the BID board, said it was decided that work on installing the lights went ahead in time for Candlelit Dartmouth.

He said he understood the concerns over the costings but it was hoped the lights gave vibrancy and ambience to the town for Christmas and made it a more enjoyable experience.

'We knew the installation cost would be higher than the cost of the lights but if you want to be a prestigious town, you have to provide a plan, and to invest in lights as the way forward and they have to be of a certain standard to encourage people to visit us,' he said.

And he said it was a pity other shopkeepers didn't 'get off their backsides' and do something for themselves occasionally rather than expect others to do it for them.

He said it was easy to beat the BID over the head but those involved believed in the town and were working for its good.

'I am tired of this fixation on the BID,' he said. 'I hope in five years' time some of those who are hammering it now will stand up and apologise.'

He said that if the council did not come up with the money the costs would have to be met by Mr Way and he believed it was a reasonable request.

But he admitted it could have been handled better.

'Mistakes have been made and I apologise to the council and members of the public,' he said.

'We left it too late in the year to have as much control as we would have liked. But we have learned from our mistakes.'

But it was hoped to build on this year's effort with better planning and more lights, with special features added, he said.

Cllr Dave Cawley said 'it was a bit rich' asking the town council for money for something it never agreed to in the first place.

'I suggest this is another BID disaster and should come out of the £1m it has already got,' he said. 'It should cough up the £2,000 and stop messing around.

'I think we are being hoodwinked. Remember Nigel Way is chairman of the BID and not the cuddly Father Christmas we know.'

Cllr Andy Carter, who is chairman of the council's general purposes committee, said he had expressed misgivings about the project when it was first discussed.

The lights were 'great' but it needs clarifying who is behind the project, he said.

'If they were there to bring trade into the town, then the BID should front the cost,' he said.

Cllr Paul Allen likened it to applying for retrospective planning permission and warned the council had not budgeted for it.

'It's a commercial operation,' he said.

'We can't keep picking up everybody's tab. We are public body and have procedures.'

Cllr Francis Hawke said residents in Townstal would quite reasonably be asking the question why, as taxpayers, were they expected to fund lights to bring people into the centre of town which lined businessmen's pockets.

'There have been too many fingers in this pie and not one person has taken control,' he said.

But Cllr Tony Fyson said the lights were a success for those streets fortunate enough to have them and he believed the council could not 'extricate itself entirely from the confusion' and it was realistic for it to contribute towards the costs.

But town clerk Tracy Rowe reminded the meeting that even if councillors wanted to help, they could not go back on their earlier resolution, that the council would not involve itself in the costs of installation or removal of the lights, for another six months.