Only Fools and Horses ‘chandelier’ moment as work is carried out on wrong Calderdale subway

Coun Howard Blagbrough (Con, Brighouse) referenced the famous BBC television comedy programme incident where the Trotters, hired to clean chandeliers in a country mansion, accidentally unscrew and smash the wrong one.

Coun Blagbrough said renovation work on one of the pedestrian underground subways at either end of the Ludenscheid Link in Brighouse had gone awry.

He told councillors: “I’m going to set the scene with Only Fools and Horses and the episode where they unscrew the wrong chandelier.”

He said originally renovation was going to involve both subways but eventually it was agreed work was going to be carried out only on the one nearest Central Methodist Church.

“The other week, I went to a meeting and somebody turned up and apologised for being late as the subway was closed.

“I thought excellent, fantastic, finally! So I came out of the meeting by the church and was puzzled why people were still using the subway.

“So I walked to the second subway where I found workmen stripping off the tiles.

“They’d only carried out work on the wrong subway!” he said.

Coun Blagbrough said it meant both subways were now only partially complete.

“Can you provide me with an update as to what the next stage is going to be, and are we going to get the monies back from the contractor?” he asked Calderdale Council’s cabinet.

Leader of the council, Coun Jane Scullion (Lab, Luddenden Foot) said the council could only admit the error.

“You couldn’t make it up, could you?

“We absolutely hold our hands up and say this is a bad mistake.

“It shouldn’t have happened – we will get the money back from the contractors,” she said.

Coun Scullion said the full council chamber laughed because the story was indeed funny, but in another way it was not.

“I am really disappointed – as you know I worked hard to make sure officers prioritised this.

“We will make sure we correct it,” she said.