The infrastructure for Welshpool’s Christmas lights has been described as “lethal” in an inspection which said it urgently needs replacing.

Welshpool Town Council may face a bill of more than £13,000 to carry out maintenance on the infrastructure for the town’s Christmas lights.  

While the lights themselves, newly purchased by the council in 2023, are all in working order, the connections, wiring and power supply within the town's buildings that supports them were deemed to be unfit for use.

According to operations manager Paul McGrath, the inspector condemned the infrastructure within 20 minutes of examining them and labelled them as “lethal”.

Mr McGrath explained that issues included several missing RCD breakers, connections that are not fit for purpose, some power sockets held together with duct tape and others not mounted properly.

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He added: “If this work is not updated there will be no lights this year. Basically we have new lights but now have no infrastructure to power them.”

The council were in agreement that they should act to repair the system as soon as possible so as to avoid a rush to replace the infrastructure close to December. The council were also informed that one company has already offered a quote of £13,000 to replace the system.

Cllr Phil Pritchard said: “At the end of the day we have to do something, simple as.

"I suggest we defer the matter until the end of March, on the basis that our operations manager can get the other two quotes, and then have a full discussion on the agenda and make a decision within the March meeting.

“Unless we do this, we won’t have lights this year, so it’s urgent we sort it out now on the basis of having the right quotes and everything else, but make a decision as soon as possible.”

The council unanimously supported the proposal.