ONE of York's former Lord Mayors said shops should not be the only businesses raising cash to make the city shine this Christmas.

Coun Derek Smallwood's message comes only days after Colliergate traders got together to raise £1,000 to support York Business Pride's Make York Sparkle - a £15,000 Christmas lights appeal launched in Saturday's Evening Press.

During his year in office in 1999, Coun Smallwood spearheaded a campaign to revolutionise York's festive lights which were, at the time, almost non-existent.

Coun Smallwood said: "We contacted everybody - businesses, individuals - that we could think of and tried to persuade them to come on board".

The 1999 campaign raised £20,000, a sum which was then matched by the council.

York's Christmas lights had been a disappointment for many years, said Coun Smallwood.

"Retailers alone shouldn't be left to bare the burden of this because the benefit of the Christmas lights is felt by everyone - including hotels and B&B's, restaurants and bars who cater for the people who flock to the city every year to do their Christmas shopping.

"Businesses have got to realise that you have got to speculate to accumulate and as far as shops and other businesses are concerned the benefits of the city's Christmas lights are immeasurable."

Make York Sparkle is asking businesses to dig deep to help make sure city centre streets shine this Christmas. The city's Christmas Lights Committee has worked hard to raise money but despite their efforts more cash is needed.

The switch on will take place this year on November 18, but because of financial constraints a big switch-on show is not planned.

To date City of York Council has contributed £12,000 to the fund with Nestle making a generous donation of £30,000, but that still leaves £14,000 to hit the £57,000 target. Much of the cost is used putting up Christmas

Unless this is met there is a real danger that some of the town centres main streets will be without lights over the festive period.

The streets that could be affected are Colliergate, Goodramgate, Davygate, Low Petergate, Fossgate, Micklegate, Coney Street and Parliament Street. The Quarter, Stonegate and The Shambles provide their own lights.

Coun Smallwood is the latest to add his voice to the growing clamour for businesses to get on board.

In Monday's Evening Press York's Chamber of Commerce chief executive Len Cruddas gave his backing to the campaign.

Mr Cruddas said: "The Christmas lights are important in many ways, not just how the city looks, but if we put on a poor show, we risk falling behind other places and losing trade. We will be spreading the message to businesses to back the campaign," he said.

Anyone wanting to make a donation can phone Elenid Davies at City of York Council on 554532 or send cheques made payable to City of York Council c/o Elenid Davies, 20, George Hudson Street, York. YO1 6WR.

Updated: 10:30 Tuesday, October 18, 2005