FLASHING lights will be banned from a town's Christmas display this year after a resident with epilepsy complained.

The festive season may be eight months away, but Carterton Town Council has already agreed to pull the plug on flashing festive lights.

Concerns were raised after a woman with epilepsy complained fast flickering lights in the town centre last Christmas had caused her problems.

Carterton town clerk Janet Eustace said flashing lights were added to the display within the last two years in an attempt to make it more interesting, but would now be removed and only static lights used.

She said: "One particular lady suffers epilepsy and when the concern was put to the council one or two members mentioned that they knew of the impact the lights could cause, so the decision was taken that it was probably best to take out the flashing lights from this year's display."

Jack Mundy, of the National Society for Epilepsy, said only five per cent of Britain's 450,000 sufferers had photosensitive epilepsy, which can cause seizures set off by flashing lights, and the risk of Christmas lights sparking the condition was "extremely small".

But most of Oxfordshire's other town centre display organisers had already introduced static light-only displays, or used lights which flashed in a sequence which would not trigger epilepsy.

Oxford City Council spokesman Louisa Dean said there had never been any complaints about flashing lights, although most of the city's displays used only static lights.

In Abingdon, where a combination of static and flashing lights are used, town clerk Nigel Wallace said the council would consider the implications of flashing lights during its "risk assessment" this year.

He said: "My understanding has always been that we use lights which have been approved by manufacturers as not causing a problem like this, but it does raise an important issue and is something we'll definitely consider."

Witney Town Council said the town only had "one or two" flashing lights, which were erected on council property in commercial areas so as not to cause a problem.

She said: "We've not had any complaints from individuals, but we are aware that flashing lights can affect people with epilepsy so we would consider this if purchasing new lights."

Banbury has a mixture of both static and flashing lights, but the town council said there had not been any complaints.

Didcot Town Council spokesman Dominic Stapleton said there had not been any complaints, but the town had mainly static lights. Bicester, Wallingford and Wantage town councils said their displays used static lights.