Christmas Lights On or Off!

Over the last two weeks I have been telephoned a number of times by people complaining that I am mad not giving the council "what for!" over the Christmas lights non-switch on.
What's my problem?
Don't I care about Scarborough?

I have asked the people who complained to me, were they there last year, most answer no, those that do answer yes were on the prerifery of the event with no children in tow. Well I was not there either, but I do care about the health and safety of people attending the event!

I have two friends who were in the town for the switch on last year both with young children, and they both experienced very frightening moments with regard to their children being crushed! This is not light matter, it only takes a second of resonable pressure to crush a child badly.

At the end of the day the Christmas Switch on event is not a spontaneous event, so it has to be assessed for health and safety by law, and the process for such a large event will require input from Police, Fire, Ambulance, and council and in the end and somebody the organiser has to put their "neck on the block" with regard to their job and possibly their liberty; if things go wrong!

At the end of the day nobody was willing to do this after assessing all the risks involved. I understand the reason the decision was so late was because the concerned parties were looking at options up until the last minute.

I personally can not see how 10,000 people who would each need a space of around 0.5 square meters to 1 square meter each just to stand (let alone move) can fit in the largest are near where the christmas lights are. I don't think any are in the town centre is that big? Or to put it another way would 20% of the towns folk fit in the area used last year safely?

So no switch-on this year, the failure is due to its own success!

This does raise the question of where else you could do the switch on! But there is little point if the new area is not where the lights are being displayed!