A decision not to stage a Christmas lights switch-on event in Stirling city centre this year has been described as “disappointing”.
Tory councillor Ross Oxburgh and SNP councillor Alasdair Macpherson said were they were puzzled as to why Stirling Council couldn’t stage the annual open-air lights switch-on in King Street.
At a meeting of Stirling Council’s community planning and regeneration committee, both cited the fact that football stadiums such as Ibrox and Celtic Park were now packing tens of thousands of people in every week and Bridge of Allan Round Table recently welcomed crowds to its fireworks event,
But officers said decisions on such events were always taken months ahead, there were still concerns around Covid and that there was still a range of events and activities, organised by the council or other organisations, for children and families to enjoy.
Councillor Macpherson said: “I understand the reasons but I don’t see why we couldn’t have made a late call on something like just switching on Christmas lights.
“I have to express my disappointment on behalf of local residents who have been in touch with me.
“It just seems the council is lagging a bit and has missed a trick here.
“There are inside events in venues like the Albert halls and there are surely more risks indoors than at outdoor events.”
Councillor Oxburgh added: “I appreciate a line has to be drawn somewhere, but kids have missed so much in the last 20 months and it is difficult not to justifying having an open-air event when so many other things are still going on.
“When tens of thousands of people are allowed to gather at sporting events across the country and this council is organising indoor Christmas events it beggars belief that this decision was taken.
“Local businesses, who have also struggled during lockdowns, would also benefit from a boost in footfall.”
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Committee convener, Labour councillor Chris Kane, said as much as he enjoyed the event in past years with his own family and was also disappointed, he appreciated officers had to make a difficult judgement call in advance.
“Having that many people in that area in the run up to Christmas with Covid numbers still as they are wouldn’t be a good idea so I’m supportive of the officers’ response.
“But we should also note that the BID (Business Improvement District) have lots of creative ideas themselves for the city centre so it won’t go unmarked, it will just be in a different way.
“We are not going to please everybody but I’m with officers on this.”
He rejected requests to organise a last minute switch on event.
“The Christmas lights go on in a few days time and this isn’t a ‘Challenge Anneka’ approach to cultural planning,” said Councillor Kane.
“Celtic Park and Ibrox are stadiums with procedures already in place but to ask officers to prepare for something like this in days is quite unfair. I’d like to soften the implication that officers are trying to steal an element of Christmas from our children because they have had to make some tough calls and are working really hard. We need to support them. They are risk aware not risk averse.
“We are where we are but there are other family events taking place.”
Senior manager for economic development, Stuart Oliver, said officers shared the disappointment but that difficult decisions had had to be made early on, particularly with additional public safety matters to be factored in.
He added: “There are predictions for a difficult winter for the health service and the council don’t want to do anything to contribute to that.
“What I would say is that part of our thinking for cultural events for 2022 is that they can hopefully come back with a bang.”
