Bill Ogilvie addressed Bathurst Regional Council’s monthly meeting on Wednesday night to congratulate council on its bicentenary celebrations and to call for an expansion of the Illuminate program.

Mr Ogilvie said he had been chairman of the Bathurst Tourism Committee for 12 years and had always found the greatest challenge was attracting people to town during the winter months.

He said the mid-winter Illuminate Bathurst festival could be just the thing to solve that problem and pointed to the success of major lights festivals such as Vivid Sydney and the Festival of Lights in Lyon, France.

“Council has the opportunity to turn Illuminate Bathurst into a major mid-winter festival and I would like to suggest a couple of ways to expand the festival,” Mr Ogilvie said.

“First, council could encourage owner-occupiers in the heritage precinct to light up their properties with uniform lights supplied by Bathurst Regional Council.

“A complimentary voucher could be provided to all ratepayers in the heritage precinct to get a free light, with extra lights available at a cost. 

“It would be a very low-cost project for council but the potential impact could be enormous.

“Second, in the week closest to the shortest day of the year council could have a lights festival similar to Illuminate but expanded to include laser shows on the Mount and heritage buildings at Bathurst Showground.”

Acting mayor Ian North thanked Mr Ogilvie for his suggestions and said council would consider them during a working party.

“Council is very proud of what we have achieved this year so all these ideas will be brought back to council to talk about them in the future,” he said.

This is not the first time Mr Ogilvie has pushed for Bathurst to host an annual lights festival.

He told the Western Advocate in 2013 that a visit to Lyon had started him thinking about what could be achieved in Bathurst.