Margate Charter Trustees are storing wires used by Empire of Light film crews for festoon lighting and have agreed to retain commando sockets that were attached to lampposts along Margate seafront.
The Trustees say retaining the equipment is forward-planning for when a Margate Town Council is installed and can use its powers to restore decorative lighting along the seafront, most likely to be wrap around lights due to the high wind stress on the seafront.
Neal Street Productions gifted the festoon lighting used during the shoot of the Sam Mendes movie to Thanet council but the authority said issues with the lights, including a manufacturing fault and the inability to dim them, meant they were not kept in place.
However, the charter trustees agreed at a meeting this week to keep some of the film set catenary wires and lamppost electricity sockets.
A spokesperson said: “Although the Charter Trustees are not permitted to fund decorative streetlights it was agreed that it would be a prudent forward-looking move to have the sockets in place for the time when a Margate Town Council is formed and the sea-front can once again look festive.
“Some of the catenary wires which supported the festoon lights had already been taken down. The Charter Trustees agreed not to ask for the remaining catenary wires to be left in situ as they would have incurred maintenance costs, but asked if, once down, the Charter Trustees could buy (a nominal £1 fee) the wires. These are now in storage until such time as a Town Council is formed and able to make use of them.”
Find out more about the Margate Town Council proposal at https://margatetowncouncil.co.uk
