Bushey Christmas lights organisers face race against time

Hertsmere Borough Council had ordered the lights for Bushey High Street and the High Road in Bushey Heath to arrive fully assembled.

However,  according to Cllr Chris Myers (Lab), cabinet member for culture, they have arrived “flat packed” instead.

Cllr Myers – who last year guaranteed that Bushey would have festive lights by this Christmas – told a council meeting on Wednesday: “At the moment, the contractor is busy trying to get enough of them assembled to get them up before the end of the week.

“We are trying to get at least some up in and around the church area, so there is something up by the time of your switch-on at the weekend.

“These things are supposed to come completely assembled and done. They haven’t, they’ve all come flat-packed, and they take up to two hours per unit to build.

“We have been guaranteed right the way through for months that they were going to go up to this week because they knew what day they were coming, it was all booked in, all the electrics had been done … everything’s there and ready to go.

“They are trying desperately to ensure there are some that go up before the end of the week.

“They’re not guaranteeing it, but they are working their backsides off to try to get them up.”

He offered his “sincerest apologies” in advance if the lights cannot be put up in time.

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Cllr Myers was responding to a question from Cllr Shailain Shah (LD, Bushey Park), who had asked the cabinet member what he was doing “to get this done in time”.

Cllr Shah said: “In the 37 years I’ve lived in Bushey, we’ve had valiant attempts to colourfully celebrate Christmas and the season of goodwill by the local churches, community organisations, shopkeepers and the volunteers from Bushey Festival.

“But we’ve never had the joy of proper Christmas lighting on Bushey High Road and Bushey High Street.

“I was going to say thank you … for making this finally happen, but I understand there may be an issue that we may not be able to have the lights on the big switch-on day, the 30th, which we have publicised.”

The council had previously believed that lamp columns in Bushey were “unsuitable” for Christmas lights, but surveys carried out earlier this year showed that lights could be hung on them after all.