SOCIAL DISTANCE SANTA VISIT CANCELLED THANKS TO ‘SCROOGE’ COMPLAINT
FREE EVENT TO BRING FESTIVE CHEER TO LOCAL CHILDREN CALLED OFF AFTER SINGLE COMPLAINT LODGED WITH COUNCIL
A FREE event for Grimsby children to see Santa distantly from their window or garden has had to be cancelled following a single complaint.
Children’s party company, Magical Memories, had planned to bring Santa around the town from next week to bring a bit of festive cheer in these hard times.
The Grimsby-based firm insist it would have been carried out in a socially distant way but say a Christmas ‘Scrooge’ has now stopped the plans completely after lodging a complaint with North East Lincolnshire Council.
The authority has since discussed the Santa visit with Public Health and Humberside Police and say it cannot go ahead due to coronavirus risk.
Rob Grabiniok, owner of Magical Memories, said: “The council rang me and said that someone had put in a complaint.
“They explained that following a meeting they have decided we couldn’t guarantee it would be safe and said it constituted a risk of groups forming.
“It’s just a shame when you hear of similar things happening elsewhere. I think there has been a Santa going around Tetney but we’re the ones that have their Christmas cancelled.” The company, whose other characters include Bat Guy, Spidie, Mermaid Princess and more, had been given the all clear to undertake character visits to individual addresses in November observing distancing and other safety measures.
As an extra Christmas treat they were also in the process of organising some free walks around the town involving Santa and his Elves observing distancing and group limits. Mr Grabiniok said: “I don’t really understand why they’ve made this sudden decision. I was Peter Rabbit at Easter time doing a similar thing and everything went fine when we
did it then. It is our business at the end of the day, we do individual visits still and we have to be extremely careful when doing those. “We’d made it really clear on the Facebook post when we were organising it that everyone was to stay in their gardens and we would be in a group that meets the rules.
The walks were organised as a completely free event to raise spirits and was not even going to include a collection bucket due to restrictions. trictions. Mr Grabiniok said: “It is just a blow, especially as someone has gone to the trouble of complaining about something that is only there to cheer up some children.
“It was just something for people to look forward to after the year we’ve all been through. “I’ve got kids myself and they’ve missed out on so many happy events. “Everything we were doing was just for the community - to be out in the street doing a bit of a dance to cheer the kids up, to see their faces smiling from the gardens or from a window.”
When Magical Memories took to Facebook to announce the cancellation, there was an outpouring of disappointment from parents. One parent even described the cancellation as being a Scrooge.
They said: “How can they complain about you walking the streets dressed as Santa? They should hang their head in shame, Scrooge’s.” Another said: “Why should they need to complain, it’s a magical thing to do to lift the children’s spirits this Christmas after the year we have all had.
“There’s always someone out there to spoil everything.”
Another said: “Children have suffered a lot this year, the least they could have is a glimpse of Santa to lift their spirits (and ours). So gutted.”
A North East Lincolnshire council spokesperson said: “As an area with a high infection rate and Tier 3 restrictions, we have discussed this issue in depth with Humberside Police and Public Health following a complaint. “A number of festive processions across the region have had to be cancelled this year because of the risk of spreading the virus, and we cannot endorse an activity that could inadvertently prompt people to disregard measures such as social distancing.
“Our rate of infection is coming down, but if we start to relax measures now we risk everything that we have all worked so hard to achieve over recent weeks.”
“We’ve already done all the preparation and organising and I was mentally prepared to be marching around in costume in the middle of December.
“Everything we were doing was just for the community, to be out in the street doing a bit of a sing and dance to cheer the kids up, to see their faces smiling from the gardens or from a window.”
Why should they need to complain, it’s a magical thing to do to lift the children’s spirits this Christmas after the year we have all had. There’s always someone out there to spoil everything
Parent