Christmas tree gives St Albans resident the bah humbug

Peter Wares, of Ramsbury Road, St Albans, is keen to brighten up the tree outside the civic offices, but says his suggestions of embellishing it with festive decorations and glittering lights has fallen on deaf ears.

At a meeting of the district council's City Forum -charged with enhancing the city's image - members rejected Peter's proposals to enhance the tree, insisting its current festive fashion was "adequate".

But the 70-year-old grandfather strongly disagreed, arguing the city centre's Christmas tree fails in its main objective - to catch the eyes of passing shoppers.

He said: "It's a very bland tree, it's not interesting enough.

"We need to make it more visually interesting. It's not really very exciting and the fact it's off of the main St Peter's street in St Albans means very few people will see it - it's in a very sad place.

"What I would like to see is a few baubles, a few imitation presents and the barriers that they have put arouund the tree are also extremely ugly.

"There could also be a different kind of lighting, at the moment there's just a blue blanket of lighting.

"They could even put a star on top of the tree.

"When you go shopping with the kids a Christmas tree is something you should be able to point out and say 'look at that lovely tree'.

"Children love to see a nice tree.

"Having a Christmas tree in the city centre that was visually attractive and uplifting, both during the day and in the evenings, would be a great asset to St Albans."

While councillors agreed that the day-time appearance of the tree was lacking, the committee agreed the present decoration was "simple" and "tasteful".

Councillors rejected Peter's suggestions to re-locate the tree in a prominent position in St Peters Street, insisting it would be costly and impractical with the ongoing utility works in the street.

The relevant cabinte member Andrew Robertson said: “A tree has been located outside the Alban Arena in the run up to Christmas for many years.

"It is a location that enables many children to see the tree when they go to the theatre during the pantomime season.

"The council has to take in account the weather and the possibility of anti-social behaviour when deciding on how to decorate the tree.

"The council has not used tinsel and baubles as these can be blown about in windy weather and their use is more appropriate to decorating trees in doors rather then in open public places. The only difference this year is that the council has used LED lights which consume about one tenth of the electricity used by traditional light bulbs.

"This cost-saving has enabled us to move the switch-on forward to mid-day so that the lights can be seen on the grey days experienced in recent weeks.”

Luckily for Peter, his wife Anne has ensured their Christmas tree at home has all the trimmings. "My Christmas tree is superb," Peter said. "My wife won't let me go without a decent tree at home with lots of decorations."

The Review is awaiting comment from St Albans District Council.