Lights are turned off in crunch

Walsall Illuminations will not run for the next three years – with question marks over its future beyond 2012.

The council has agreed to axe the attraction this year in a bid to save £170,000.

Spiralling costs and dwindling visitor numbers have dogged the annual event, which has been staged at the town's Arboretum since 1951. Council leader John O'Hare said he hoped that it would return in 2012,.

He said: "We will look at it as soon as it becomes opportune. The Illuminations will be cancelled this year.

"They would have been cancelled the next two years for maintenance work anyway. We will be looking to see if during this period of time we could come up with a new concept which can bring it up to date."

The move is among cost-cutting tactics in Walsall Council's draft budget, which was approved by the cabinet last night. Other measures include the closure of the borough's only municipal golf course, a reduction in library and leisure centre opening hours and a rise in the price of meals on wheels. The budget has been designed to claw back £12.8 million.

Job cuts will also be made at Walsall Council, but yesterday's meeting was told that backroom management would be hit more than front-line employees.