West Yorkshire Christmas events: Calderdale towns and villages facing festive season without Christmas trees or lights as Calderdale Council axes funding

Calderdale councillors have approved cuts to Christmas services which include providing trees and lighting to communities free of charge.

The move will save the council around £107,000.

Instead, it is inviting communities to fund their own areas’ trees and lights.

Liberal Democrat councillors have urged the ruling Labour group’s cabinet to reconsider the controversial decision in light of potential logistical issues.

But the cabinet members are sticking to their guns and say a number of Calderdale communities have already sourced funding and taken up the offer of council packages to put up trees and lights.

Coun Amanda Parsons-Hulse (Lib Dem, Warley) said many councillors had received emails about the decision’s impact.

“Christmas trees are a focal point and they light up some of the darkest times of our year – they symbolise hope,” she said.

But with issues including safe issue of trees, whether they were the right height, who would do the electrical installations and electrical inspections, road closures, hire of cherry pickers, insurance issues and so on would be “a logistical nightmare”, she said.

It might cost more in administration than money it saves, said Coun Parsons-Hulse.

“Can we be reassured you might reconsider the decision so that our residents can look forward to singing around the festive tree?” she said.

Cabinet member for Regeneration and Transport, Coun Sarah Courtney (Lab, Calder) said legally delivering a balanced budget with good quality statutory services and protecting the most vulnerable meant difficult choices.

The council wanted to support communities and understood how festive lighting and events added greatly to communities.

She said she was pleased to report that so far Sowerby Bridge, Brighouse, Hebden Bridge, Mytholmroyd and Shelf have all confirmed they have secured necessary funding this year to continue to buy the service Calderdale is offering.

Time is running short, however, for communities to take this up with a mid-August deadline if they want to order a tree through the council.

They can provide their own, with restrictions – for example, trees cannot exceed 20 feet in height – and for an £850 fee the council will arrange for the tree to be put up, decorated, connected to the power supply and later removed, said Coun Courtney.

Some groups have asked if alternative suppliers can be used to undertake these processes, she said.

“Unfortunately, after careful consideration, while we want to develop a process for communities to have this option in the future, this will not be possible this year.

“As such any decorations on, or attached to, or drawing electricity from Highways assets will need to be installed by our framework supplier,” said Coun Courtney.

She added: “I appreciate people may feel the prices we are quoting are expensive and others may offer to provide this service cheaper but the necessary insurance qualifications, management, risk assessments and method statements to carry out this work safely are much more involved than many people think.”