Ashburton District Councillors have approved temporary road closures in the CBD for Light up the Night, the first of Council’s Christmas festival events on Friday 2 December.

The event will include entertainment and family activities, and culminate in the lighting up of the giant Christmas tree on the East Street green.

The tree will be assembled in the week prior to the event.

Mayor Neil Brown said the lighting up the Christmas tree signalled the start of the festive season and the event would be great fun for all the family.

“Closing parts of East Street means that people can gather safely as a community and enjoy some Christmas cheer. The closures are in stages and aimed at keeping the roads safe for the many people we expect to attend, while still allowing some traffic during normal business hours.”

Councillors have approved road closures that allow for event organisers to set up from 1pm, with the event closing at 10pm and then time for clean-up.

The closures are:

• Stage one, 1pm-5pm:
  East Street, full closure, from Burnett Street to Havelock Street.
  East Street, north-bound lane closed, from Tancred Street to Burnett Street.
• Stage two, from 5pm-10pm:
  East Street, full closure, from Moore Street to Havelock Street.
  Tancred Street, full closure from East Street to Cass Street.
  Burnett Street, full closure from East Street to Cass Street.
• Stage three, from 10pm to midnight:
  East Street, full closure from Burnett Street to Havelock Street.
  East Street, north-bound lane close, from Tancred Street to Burnett Street.

Mayor Brown said the road closure application had attracted one objection related to business access, but the event would bring many people to the CBD and hospitality businesses should benefit.

“The event is aimed at bringing the community together in the CBD area to witness the lighting of the Christmas tree and the area is designed to cater for activity like this. Staging the road closures will lessen the impact on businesses and allow our one-way streets to operate as normal until 5pm.”

Council’s Nights of Lights Christmas festival also includes a movie night on Saturday 17 December and buskers in the CBD on Friday 23 December and Saturday 24 December, from 10am-2pm.