According to Manchester City Council, this year's Christmas lights will not only be more environmentally friendly - but bigger and brighter too.
 | | Cone tree: will move to Piccadilly Gdns |
A specialist French lighting contractor called Blachere Illumination was given the job of re-designing the Christmas lights display to make it greener. Traditional lights have been replaced by low energy LED bulbs. The result is a million lights - but a smaller electricity bill. And how many council workers does it take to put up a million light bulbs? Well, according to Gary Ellis of the City Centre Partnership, five teams of two men have been working since September rigging a million 'pea lights' across the city centre. "It's more than double what we put up last year, but they use a lower voltage," added Mr Ellis. "For instance, we've lit more than 270 trees in the city - which is more than any other city centre in the UK. It's low energy but high impact and we've done that because there was a strong feeling that we had to consider the environmental impact." And as well as the traditional areas, the Christmas lights are being extended to new areas such as Brazennose St, St Ann's St, Shudehill, New Cathedral St, Exchange Sq, Cathedral Gardens, Thomas St, High Street, Oak Street, Tib Street, Church Street, Mount Street, Oxford Street and Peter Street. So, here are the main points: - a million low energy light bulbs used
- state of the art LED technology
- a real growing Christmas tree in Albert Square
- more of the city centre illuminated
- a 7ft Christmas dragon in Chinatown
- cone tree moved to Piccadilly Gardens
Cllr Pat Karney says: "Manchester has the biggest and best Christmas Light scheme in the country. The latest LED technology will transform Manchester City Centre into a magical winter wonderland with more parts of the city centre being lit up than ever before. Not only that, our fantastic new lighting scheme uses less energy and gives brighter illuminations than traditional lights." A real tree Another change will be Manchester's first ever live growing Christmas tree which will replace the artificial 'cone' in Albert Square. A ten metre Corsican fir, complete with root ball, will take centre stage outside the Town Hall. And after Christmas is over, the tree will be re-planted in one of the city's many parks and hopefully re-used next Christmas. And as for the cone tree? It will take pride of place in Piccadilly Gardens alongside a new festive open air ice rink. And for the first time, Chinatown will have its own multi-coloured oriental style lights, with Chinese lanterns strung from the buildings and as a special feature, unique to Manchester, a 7ft tall illuminated dragon! | 
