LYME Regis town councillors are giving their full support to a lighting project for the Langmoor and Lister gardens.

Members were invited to a demonstration of how it could look if the gardens were illuminated with multicoloured lights by John Newton of Lyme Light, who also does the Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens, and were blown away by how it looked.

At a meeting of the council’s town management and highways committee, chairman Cllr John Broom said: “I was amazed at how brilliantly it looked when you saw it and it is exactly what we are looking for.

“I think we should go whole-heartedly for it.”

Cllr Jeff Scowen agreed and said even though the display was only a fraction of what they want to get, the lights were ‘fantastic’ and ‘uplifting’ and that the council should congratulate themselves.

Cllr Brian Larcombe said that it was a pity the project - which is estimated to take a couple of years to complete, with the first area hoped to be finish by November - wouldn’t be finished within this council’s lifetime.

He said: “A number of us have been advocating this for a long time and I am very pleased to see it come in.

“The only pity is that it won’t be completed in the life of this council, which is a shame, but never mind, most of the public will remember that is was this council that brought it in.”

Mayor of Lyme Regis, Cllr Michaela Ellis, said her first impression when she saw the display was ‘wow’.

“It is absolutely brilliant and to think we can change the colour of the lighting to certain events if need be”, she said.

“I think it will be really good and keep people’s interest and when we’ve got people coming away on holiday, instead of going home to be with the kids, it is something to go out and enjoy of an evening.”

Cllr Scowen added: “I was keen to get this done as soon as possible and I see that there is a start date hopefully of September.

“I don’t see that as a problem because it is an autumn and winter feature, it is not going to happen in the summer, we are not going to be putting them on when it gets dark late, so I don’t see a problem in that at all.

“We have waited this long, what is a couple of months.”

The council’s budget for this project is £60,000, £30,000 of which was secured through Section 106 funding from West Dorset District Council, and the cost of the project will be determined over the coming weeks.

Councillors agreed to go ahead with the project, waive financial regulations and negotiate design and contract prices without competition as the town council has been unable to find a company other than Lyme Light capable of producing an imaginative lighting scheme.