IF IT’S bad luck to leave your Christmas decorations up after Twelfth Night, the people of Holmfirth could be in trouble.
Some of the town’s Christmas lights have still not come down – 100 days on from December 25.
And they look set to be there until NEXT Christmas, because of the cost of removing them.
An Examiner reader from Holmfirth said: “It’s after Easter, do you think someone could get round to taking Holmfirth lights down? It’s a little embarrassing.”
But Caroline Anstey, president of Holme Valley Business Association, which helped pay for the lights, said they would be staying up.
She said: “It’s quite an ordeal taking them down.
“With health and safety being what it is now, we have to be sure people are doing things properly.
“We used to use ladders, but now we have to use cherry picker platform lifts to get them down.
“The decision has been made to keep some of them up.”
She said the same lights would be switched on next Christmas.
Clr Kath Smith, of Holme Valley Parish Council, who organised last year’s lights, said there was not enough money or manpower to support the lights switch-on.
And she launched a scathing attack on people who demanded Christmas lights for the town but refused to help out.
She said: “Everyone wants the lights, but who’s paying for it?
“Every year it takes £8,000 to £10,000 to put the lights up and take them down.
“It used to be a lot less because health and safety wasn’t such a big issue.
“I personally put in £6,000 last year.
“We go round and ask businesses to contribute to the Christmas lights and there are people who will put their hand in their pockets there and then and give you £100.
“But last year one person gave me a £2 coin, which is just insulting.
“It was left to two of us to put them up and take them down on our own.
“On the day of the switch-on, everyone else came out of the woodwork to get involved.
“We said afterwards we were not prepared to go running around doing it again.
“Unless someone comes out and says they will be a part of it, there won’t be a switch-on.”
She said taking the lights down was an overnight job that took several hours.
“Unless someone out there is willing to put in the time and money instead of complaining, it’s not going to happen again,” she added.
