MALVERN town council will provide 'infrastructure' lighting in the town this Christmas but will leave individual shops and businesses to come up with their own festive decorations.

A proposal for the move, put forward by Coun David Williams at last Thursday's meeting at Dyson Perrins School, was accepted and acting parks and amenities officer Nigel King was given the go-ahead to get quotations for the job.

The decision came after members were given a verbal update by Mr King on a Malvern Town Network meeting about the lights, held in Malvern last month.

He has also been given a remit to consult further with traders.

Members were told there had been no definite way forward formed for this Christmas but a switch-on event had been discounted because of staff shortages.

A budget of £15,000 has been set.

They were also told that just two traders had turned up for the meeting and a letter sent to Great Malvern Association of Traders requesting a list of its members had not received a reply.

"We just seem to be suffering from the usual lack of interest until after the event," Coun David Williams told the meeting.

Acting town clerk Rosemary Lansdowne reassured members that there would be just enough time to organise this year's decorations but said it was not feasible to have staff put them up.

Coun Ann Silk welcomed an offer by the town's firefighters to put up lighting as a way of cutting down costs but, after health and safety concerns were raised by some members, there were suggestions that the whole exercise should be "outsourced".

Coun Pat Mewton was among the members worried about the safety of sockets on many buildings in the town, suggesting that to remedy the situation would use up the whole budget.

He added: "If traders took their own responsibility, as a town council we would provide garlands that go across the street and light up some of the trees and that should be the limit of our involvement."

While Coun Williams added that the council did not have the facilities to do the job in-house, Coun Graham Myatt stressed the importance of finding a representative voice for traders.

He added: "We have to do better this year than last year or not do it at all."