TOWNS and villages in the district could get the Olympic ‘look’ in time for next year’s Games if the council decides to spend £35,000 on decorations.

The district council’s cabinet is due to decide on Monday (October 24) whether to set aside the money from its development fund for official 'Look and Feel' Olympic street decorations to help spread excitement before and during the Games.

The money will cover 10 packs of decorations for town and parish councils, which will each include 12 banners to attach to lamp posts, 10 fencing banners and 100 metre roll of bunting.

The design of the decorations is being kept secret by the organisers of the Olympic Games so they are a surprise to residents.

Town and parish councils will be asked to pay for half the pack, with the district council providing the rest of the money.

In his recommendations to the cabinet ahead of Monday’s meeting, council officer John Gilbert said: “It is important that the whole community of the district are able to join in the Olympic celebration.”

He added that if uptake by town and parish councils was limited, the district council would have to decide how to use the left over decorations.

The Olympic canoe and kayaking events will take place at the Lee Valley White Water Centre near Waltham Abbey, just across the border with the borough of Broxbourne.

Broxbourne Borough Council plans to use part of its £270,000 budget for decorations in the town, as well as on the route to the venue and at the park and ride that will operate from North Weald Airfield during the games.

Enid Walsh, clerk to Loughton Town Council, said councillors would be seriously considering the plans at their meeting on Wednesday (October 26).

“We’re certainly keen to make sure that the town is able to celebrate in the style it wishes,” she added. “We have been gradually working to improve the look of the town, with hanging baskets and flower tubs, and certainly 2012 and the Queen’s Jubilee concentrate the mind.”

At the same meeting, the cabinet is also due to rubber-stamp plans to award the Olympic tickets it won to next year’s Citizen of the Year winners and runners-up, as well as users of St Clare Hospice, Hastingwood, Chigwell Riding Trust and Oakview School in Loughton.

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