IT MAY only be May, but there's already £9,000 in the kitty for this year's Christmas lights display in York.

Outgoing Lord Mayor, Councillor Derek Smallwood has received a cheque for £2,500 from Railtrack towards this year's illuminations.

And he says McArthurGlen, which owns the designer outlet store at Fulford, has promised another £1,000, with a further £500 coming from bus company First York. An extra £5,000 is left over from last year's appeal, which raised £22,000.

Coun Smallwood says he hopes the extra money will help fill in the "black holes" in York which were not lit up last year.

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