With Christmas Just Around The Corner,

lots of local communities are getting ready to switch on their Christmas lights,

like this village pictured last year at Bishop’s Cleeve, Gloucestershire, but the organisers had not taken into account new Health & Safety rules imposed by the Bishop's Cleeve Parish Council, the event, which usually attracts several hundred people every year, was axed by councillors in Bishop’s Cleeve, Gloucestershire who feared the village green would become overcrowded, instead, the lights will be quietly switched without fanfare,

Peter Badham, vice-president of the Chamber of Commerce, said the decision was ‘health and safety gone berserk', in previous years, the ceremony has been held in a local supermarket car park with Santa’s grotto inside the community centre but this year the Bishop’s Cleeve Parish Council withdrew permission for the use of the centre because organisers failed to ‘sign in’ everyone who entered the building, to resolve the issue, the chamber, which has organised the switch on for the last 11 years, suggested the event be held on the village green, but the parish council blocked those plans on health and safety grounds,

concerns were also raised about event licences, the lack of stewards, the weight of the fairground roundabout, notices for road closures, adequate risk assessment and insurance to parish council property,

speaking of adequate risk assessment and lack of stewards spare a thought for the Warton Royal British Legion who have honoured their fallen colleagues with a march through the village every year since the guns fell silent, their local council ruled they could not hold their annual parade on Remembrance Sunday because they had failed to fill in the correct paperwork,

the paper work being an event plan, risk assessment forms, emergency contact details, marshals, traffic management procedures, road closure applications, an evacuation plan and public liability insurance, the veterans were issued with the extraordinary list after the council ruled they could not hold their annual parade,

Terry Casey, a former Royal Air Force mechanic and the Legion’s branch secretary, said of the parade, which has been held for more than 80 years: ‘it’s the first year we’ve had to do all this, We’ve been told we have to marshall the event ourselves, but with only seven members, there’d be no one left,’ but in a showing of common sense, (rare in a council), the muppets at the council announced ‘the parade will go ahead, We’ve offered to help with the risk assessment,’ three cheers for common sense, your local council working for you!