Damage caused to festive illuminations across the Derry City and Strabane District Council area last Christmas amounted to almost £50,000.
Damage was caused to lights in parts of Derry as well as Strabane and Castlederg.
Members of Derry City and Strabane District Council’s Environment and Regeneration Committee have heard that while vandalism of Christmas light has taken place in previous years, the frequency and scale of the incidents over the festive period of 2021 resulted in additional costs to Council that had not been included in the original allocated budget.
Last year’s damage amounted to almost £50,000.
Committee members as a result, approved additional budget to cover associated costs.
Conor Canning, Head of Environment with Derry City and Strabane District Council says it was unfortunate that there were several reported instances of vandalism to trees across the Council area, in particular the trees in Derry’s, Guildhall Square and Waterloo Place, which were targeted on a number of occasions.
He says as part of this year’s Christmas illuminations planning, the Council is looking at a number of ways to improve designs and to put additional preventable measures in place.
