EFFORTS are under way to improve on last year's "pathetic" Christmas lights display in Barnoldswick town centre.

Pea lights - very small white lights in large numbers -and modified wall decorations look like forming the bulk of Barnoldswick's Christmas display this year.

New health and safety rules have rendered first the town council's overhead festoons and Pendle Council's streetlight-mounted decorations virtually obsolete.

Flickering rope lights - usually seen at discos - were fixed to streetlights as a last minute alternative last Christmas after Lancashire County Council imposed the new rules at short notice.

Those rope lights could be used again this year, but Coun David Whipp told the town council's development committee they looked "pathetic". He said the county council had put a block on virtually all the decorations used in previous years and it was a case of "making the best of a bad job".

He was reporting on a joint meeting of West Craven's parish and town councils, called in a bid to find a way forward on the Christmas decoration problem.

Coun Whipp said: "So far as we're concerned, the tentative suggestion is that the pathetic rope lights we had last year shouldn't be on the columns again. We should stick to providing the Christmas trees, continue with the festoon and wall decorations on Rainhall road and Newtown, and the pea lights in the trees on Fernlea Avenue."

However, some members felt the rope lights weren't all that bad.

Coun Whipp said other possibilities were pea lights on two trees in Albert Road, outside the Majestic. However, it would cost up to £3,500 to provide a power supply to meet all the regulations. There was also the possibility of wall mounted decorations on Church Street and Albert Road, subject to funding and getting permission of building owners. It might be possible to modify some of the old streetlight decorations for wall mounting, said Coun Whipp.

A fresh push will also be made to persuade more of Barnoldswick's shopkeepers to put illuminated Christmas trees over their shopfronts. A meeting will now be called between the town council, Pendle Council and the Chamber of Trade to consider how to maximise the town's Christmas display this year.