Angry residents have demanded answers after the village Christmas lights in Calverton failed to turn on during a switch-on ceremony that took place over the weekend.
Around 2,000 people turned up to watch the festive lights get switched on in the village on Saturday (26) night and were left hugely disappointed when they failed to light up during the ceremony.
Calverton Parish Council chairman Andy Meads contacted Gedling Eye to voice his concerns.
He said: “Every year we pay Gedling Borough Council to fit the lighting and switch it on at a pre-arranged time. This year we had a record crowd to watch the lights. We gave out 250 selection boxes, had a mass singalong with the choir, and then the lights didn’t come on.
“They have ruined the event. None of them will answer their mobile phones and the parish council are getting the blame.”
Resident Anne-Marie Partridge said: “You can imagine the look of sadness on the faces of the children that didn’t understand what was going on, mixed with the look of anger and dismay on the parents and local parish council.
“Our village is left in darkness; the village that Gedling Borough Council forgot.”
She added: “What exactly do we pay them for? As a village we haven’t got a clue.”
Gedling Borough Council leader John Clark apologised on behalf of the council and said they were ‘investigating the incident’.
The Council also issued a statement on social media.
They said: “Earlier this year, Gedling Borough Council contacted the parish council to inform them that an external provider had been contracted to install the lights and that the Parish Council would need to contact them to organise the installation of the lights. Unfortunately, it seems that the vent organisers contacted us with a switch on date and this important information was not passed on to the contractors, which we are very sorry for.
“We are also very sorry for the disappointment this would have caused residents who enjoy this community event every yaer. We will not be charging the Calverton Parish Council for the event and we will reimburse the costs for the brass brand and mince pies.
“We take great care in providing events at Christmas across the borough and we will be reviewing our processes to prevent this happening in the future.
They added: “We understand the lights have now been installed and we will be organising for them to be switched on as soon as possible.”
The statement from Gedling borough council is not true, they wrote to us to tell them to book the light switch on date and time, not the contractor, they haven’t even given us the contractors contact details or who they are until now. We have the emails and correspondence, gbc are just blame shifting. This just comes on the back of all the poor service this village receives from GBC, I think over at Arnot Hill Park we are just seen as a cash machine they can keep taking from, without putting anything back in.