Part of Croydon has been left in the dark after a Christmas lights blunder.

The farce came after a long running fundraising campaign to light up the town that was backed by the Croydon Business group and the Croydon Advertiser.

The lights were originally erected in South End between Laud Street and Coombe Lane but had to be taken down when organisers discovered there were no suitable power sockets.

Ros Morgan, Croydon Business' BID and town centre operations manager, said: "Unfortunately, because Croydon Council put up nine new lampposts in the street the sockets were not there.

"To get the sockets installed at the council's standard would have cost around £5,000, which was just not viable.

"However, in the three-and-a-half months since I have taken over we have managed to light up parts of the town that haven't been lit for three years, so it has been a great achievement."

One South End restaurant owner, said: "It is a great shame as the rest of the town looks lovely at this time of year. I am a little surprised the money could not be found to light up such a small section of road when the rest of the town has such extravagant lighting."

The campaign began earlier this year when Croydon Business rallied local businesses to put up money for the lights.

Ms Morgan is hoping that the lights next year will be a greater success if traders vote for the Business Improvement District in February, which would generate a budget to cover the town centre lights in the future.

She added: "A lot of effort has gone into getting the lights up and it is a real shame that this part of the High Street could not be lit up.

"We tried all we could to get the lights up there but there was just not enough money."