Both Burnham-On-Sea and Highbridge will get town Christmas trees this festive season despite concerns being raised over the cost by town councillors this week.
During a heated debate over the £7,000 cost of providing the 25-ft trees at a Town Council meeting last night (Tuesday), town councillors voted in favour of proceeding with Christmas trees in both towns.
An idea was considered to save the council thousands of pounds by relying on The Victoria Hotel’s large festive tree in Victoria Street this year, thereby saving the council from buying a separate Burnham tree next to the fountain in Old Station Approach as seen in previous years, pictured above.
A strongly-worded letter from several Burnham traders was read out by the Mayor in which they said they have been “struggling” over recent years and “having no tree would be another nail in the town’s coffin” and would also be an “insult to residents and businesses.”
Cllr James Warren said he had spoken to The Victoria Hotel’s landlord, who had confirmed that a large festive tree will be in place outside the premises as normal at a cost of around £300.
Cllr Warren added: “Since 2018, the cost of putting on a Christmas display with trees and lights in Burnham and Higjhbridge has grown from £7,000 to nearly £30,000 this year. It’s getting beyond a joke in my view when people are struggling with energy bills and struggling to put food on the table. I think we’d be pushing the boat out by accepting these quotes.”
But Cllr Peter Clayton responded: “I feel this is quite insulting really. It’s like me saying to the Highbridge residents, ‘the Coopers Arms has a Christmas tree, why not all go and look at that one?’ It’s really insulting. Some parents are not going to like taking children to pubs.”
“There are few lights in the south area of the High Street. Taking away the tree would destroy that area completely and we will be letting our residents and traders down if we do not support this as a council. The traders are outraged at the thought and deserve to be supported.”
“If we do not go ahead with two trees we will be seen to be a ‘scrooge council’. We all know what happened last time when it went into the national press. We need to support the traders in these difficult times with one tree in Highbridge and one tree in Burnham.”
Cllr Mike Murphy said he was surprised at the £7,000 cost and asked for clarification on the overall figures.
Cllr Ganesh Gudka responded: “The council’s overall budget for Christmas lights and decorations in the two towns is £26,000 with £21,000 dedicated to the lights over the streets. That’s left £5,000 in budget for the Christmas trees and the lighting of the trees. When we considered the quotes for the trees, the best value seemed to be the £7,000 quote – the other quotes were way over our budget.”
He added: “We justified it [during a Town Improvements Committee meeting] by saying the £7,000 cost in the first year also included the purchase of the lights which would last three years, making the two subsequent years around £3,900. So by implication you’d say the purchase of the lights is about £4,200.”
Cllr Gudka added that the commttee felt the three-year cost would therefore be close to budget, “however there was a level of discomfort over the level of spending we were faced with.” He added that given that there has been “confirmation that there will be a seperate large tree in Burnham at The Victoria, there has been a disussion over the last few days on whether it’s sensible to be spending that amount on Christmas trees since we are still lighting the streets.”
Cllr Murphy said that in the past, a town council staff member would have gone out and bought a tree from a local tree farm at considerably less, but he added that it is “essential to have two trees.”
Councillors then voted in favour of a recommendation for approximately £2,000 of extra expenditure exceeding the budget for the installation and decoration of the town’s Christmas trees to be taken from its general reserves. It was proposed by Cllr Peter Clayton and seconded by Cllr Sue Barber. During the vote, all councillors were in favour, barring two – Cllr James Warren and Cllr Ganesh Gudka.
