FUNDRAISING for £30,000 has been launched to help light up Galashiels town centre this Christmas.

The town's community council will seek £10k from Eildon Area Partnership when members meet next week.

The remaining project amount of £20,000 has been sought from the National Lottery.

The funding is to replace the high energy Christmas lights in the main streets of Galashiels, including the iconic areas such as the War Memorial, fountain, library, Volunteer Hall, and Bank Street Gardens.

A funding panel report to be presented to Partnership members on Thursday, September 5, recommends that the project is supported with a contribution of £7,500.

A report states: “The panel is generally supportive of this type of application as Christmas lights do make a significant difference to a town at the darkest time of the year and greatly increase community spirit.

“The panel was pleased to see the majority of the project costs being potentially covered by an external funding source, significantly reducing reliance on local authority funding.

“Given that the application is for the maximum amount of £10,000, the panel would have preferred to have seen more evidence of the community engagement mentioned in the application.

“The panel would have also preferred to have seen a financial contribution from the applicant itself, given the size of the project.

“Both of these things could have been tackled by organising local fund-raising events focused on supporting the Christmas lights upgrade project.”