Having already agreed to spend more money than is in the budget for Christmas Lights, the recent Smalltown and Dullbridge Town Council Town Unimprovements Committee meeting saw Councillors discuss the prickly issue of Christmas trees for Smalltown and Dullbridge.
Smalltown Administration Guru (SAG), Katie Global, had obtained three quotations for two 94ft trees for Councillors to choose between, varying in cost from £6,794.00 for one year including the hire of lights, through £7,145.94 for year one, including the purchase of lights which would see the cost reduced to £3,940 for the following two years as a three year contract, up to an eye-watering £21,594.00 for one year or £18,940.00 per year for a 3 year contract.
Last year the two Christmas trees cost a total of £3,094 and for the current financial year only £3,000 had been allocated, however the tree budget was combined with the Christmas lights budget, giving a total budget of £26,000 to be spent on lights and trees. With the Christmas lights currently estimated at £21,000 – a figure which the SAG, Katie Global, confirmed could increase as the plan and layout are yet to be confirmed – this left £5,000 in the budget.
With an actual allocation of only £3,000 for Christmas trees in this financial year, Councillors agreed that the £21,594 quotation was out of the question and looked more closely at the remaining options.
The mid-priced quote included the purchase of lights and the company had also offered to store them for use again in 2024, meaning less chance of SaDTC putting them somewhere and forgetting they had them, which is a fate that has befallen bunting, flags, gazebos and Ice Rinks in the past.
Owner of the SaD Town Council abacus, Cllr Banish Barracuda recommended that the £7,145.94 be accepted saying “Whilst this errrrm is expensive for the errrm first year, it is errrrm considerably cheaper in errrrm years two and errrm three. So the total errrrm cost for three errrm years would be errrm £15,000 or errrm £5000 per errrrm year over three errrm years. So whilst errrm this cost is more errrm expensive for year one errrrm it will balance errrrm out over three errrrm years to remain errrm within budget.”
Cllr Barracuda had obviously forgotten that his Finance and Misappropriation Committee had only initially approved a budget of £3,000 for trees, prior to the amount being lumped in with the Christmas lights budget.
What none of the Committee members seem to realise, probably because they are all so new to this, is that they didn’t have to accept any of the quotations supplied and could instead, ask for further quotes, perhaps even from the companies which have supplied far cheaper trees in the past. Deferring the final decision until the next meeting, or even calling yet another Extraordinary meeting to discuss any alternatives.
One important matter that the Town Council has overlooked with regard to the tree lights and new Christmas lights is the cost of the electricity to run them. With massive energy price increases and with SaDTC voting to reject the quote for Green energy, it’s not just the actual monetary value there is also the effect on the environment to consider.
It will be interesting to see how Dictator Dullard will react when she realises that all the light pollution, energy costs and the death of two 25ft trees really do not square with her own Council’s stated Climate Rescue Action Plan.