FOI Request - Annual Spend on Christmas Lights and Decor

Request 101003145153

I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the following information which relates to your spending on Christmas/festive season lights and decorations for public spaces in your jurisdiction.
Please may you provide me with data on:
1. The total amount of money that the Local Authority plans to spend on Christmas lights in 2022, and how much was spent in 2021, 2020, 2019.  
2. The total amount of money that the Local Authority plans to spend on Christmas decorations in 2022, and how much was spent in 2021, 2020, 2019.  
3. The cost of energy used to run Christmas lights in 2021

Please provide the information in the attached spreadsheet.

Response 05-10-2022

1. Elgin Bid and all the community councils supply, install and maintain lights in their own towns at their own cost. We have been asked in the past to assist in the installation and removal of the lights but all costs have been recharged back to whichever community council have asked for our help. The Common Goods Fund spend for Forres can be found here.

2. Christmas tree set up and removal costs:

2015 -£315.83
2016 -£247.91
2017 -£190.88
2018 -£186.85
2019 -£180.00
2020 -£200.00
2021 -£158.56

3. Please find the information you requested here. We send out letters requesting energy usage and insurance documents. Once these come back we send the information to SSE who generate energy invoices and these are then sent out to the community councils with no added costs.