Dundee City Council has approved a £300k fund for lighting-up landmark buildings and artworks to entice evening shoppers and diners.
The unanimous decision was reached on Monday evening at the local authority’s city development committee.
As well as additional lighting, a central feature of the scheme is a “pilot project” to run on Thursday evenings from April through June this year.
This aims to “create a habit of early-night footfall in the city centre” between the hours of 5pm and 8pm by means of cultural, retail and hospitality events.
The ‘city lights and city nights’ scheme prompted divided opinion online among Dundonians when first announced in committee papers last week.
Some praised the initiative while others suggested there are better ways of using public money during the cost of living emergency declared by the council last year.
Along with the lighting features, there will now be a “a significant promotional campaign,” including a web page to inform potential punters on what to expect.
Regeneration of the city centre remains a key objective of the council.
As in other towns and cities across the UK, Dundee continues to suffer the collective impact of online shopping, businesses lost from Covid-19 lockdowns, and people carefully monitoring spending against high inflation.
Among his comments, council leader, John Alexander, said: “This could be really beneficial for customers and businesses alike.”
‘Desperate Dan a possible priority’
Lynne Short, SNP member for Maryfield asked the council’s executive director of city development, Robin Presswood, what will be lit up and, in line with green policies, if the impact of additional energy use on the environment “will be looked at.”
Mr Presswood said the “leading options” are: The Steeple Church in the Nethergate, the dragon on the east side of the High Street, Desperate Dan and Minnie the Minx, also features of the High Street and St Paul’s Cathedral.
He said lighting up the statues of characters from the Dandy and the Beano “might be a priority.”
All are subject to approval; the cathedral is a category A listed building.
He emphasised there was “no guarantee” these would be the final choices due to the need to gain permission and whether it is “technically possible” to light them up.
‘McManus investment’
Mr Presswood also revealed that the lighting of the McManus Art Gallery and Museum will be “improved” with an LED system.
He said: “The impact of that capital investment will be to both improve the lighting of the building but also to reduce energy costs and carbon emissions by 50%.”
He added that this was decided in the past week and therefore not in the committee report.
Leader of the Liberal Democrat group, West End councillor, Fraser Macpherson, said they were “happy to support” the work, in particular the pilot scheme aimed at boosting the evening economy.
He said: “We think that’s something we could do a whole lot more on, going forward.”
‘Range of interventions’
After the meeting, John Alexander emphasised that the light-up scheme was the fourth, since October last year, of a number of “interventions” by his administration aimed at city centre regeneration.
He said: “These follow national efforts, that I’ve personally been involved in, to support city centres and drive footfall. There’s no one ‘answer’ and we need to continue to scope out opportunities to support business and make the city centre an attractive destination.
“I’m particularly keen to seen the work to improve evenings in the city centre through focused work on extending opening hours for retail and hospitality businesses.”
Conversation