This Is What West Wickham High Street, Kent Will Look Like For Christmas,

for the past 20 years traders have paid for Christmas decorations,

but in a move that has upset many traders and locals alike Health & Safety have stepped in to ban all Christmas decorations attached to lamp posts, secretary of West Wickham Town Centre Association, Jane Avis manages the family-run shop Waterways, in the High Street, which has been running for more 30 years, She said: 'we’ve had Christmas lights for over 20 years, My mum used to do it and then I took it over', but here is the problem, West Wickham High Street some 5 years ago was made a Red Route, (in the UK this means the pavements are double or trebled in size to restrict the road to two lanes then making parking impossible and illegal), it seems strange then that for 5 years all was well but this year a charge of £4,000 will be made to have lampposts tested for health and safety reasons, the hard pressed traders have of course got to pay this with no help from Bromley council, the charge is made by Transport for London (TfL) rather than Bromley Council,

resident Charles Sebestyen, a 70-year-old retired property executive who has lived in the area for around 35 years, said: 'it has killed the Christmas spirit in the West Wickham area, TfL is being ridiculous, I simply do not understand how something that has worked for a long time is now suddenly unsafe,' Mr Sebestyen, a member of West Wickham Residents’ Association, added: 'it’s just sad because in this economic climate, the traders can’t afford it, David Cameron talks about the big society where people do something for themselves and this is what happens,' Robert Oxley, campaign manager of the TaxPayers' Alliance said: 'with money tight councils don’t have a fortune to spend on Christmas lights, bureaucrats shouldn't be making it more expensive to decorate town centres with some Christmas cheer', 

 

TfL director of roads Dana Skelley said: 'safety on our road network is the top priority, blah, blah, blah,' Dana continues for the next several column inches, the upshot is that what was safe for the past 20 years is now going to cost £4,000 for some one to say so, looking at the strength of lampposts, I would have thought that if attaching a bit of bunting will bring them crashing down they are too weak in the first place and should have been strengthen in case a storm came through as it did in 1987, all I can say is well done Dana for making West Wickham High Street a lightless place at Christmas.