Christmas lights to stay up all year
Safer to leave deccies in place due to COVID
A Perthshire town will keep its Christmas lights up all year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The lights in Blairgowrie and Rattray have stayed up well beyond December 25.
And the Blairgowrie and Rattray Illuminations Committee has said that COVID-related restrictions mean keeping them there is the safest option for the group’s members.
The team of hard-working volunteers was able to put up the lights in November last year when restrictions imposed as part of efforts to tackle the global coronavirus pandemic had been eased.
However, subsequent variants of the pathogen and the resultant lockdowns and tightening of restrictions have meant that it is not now advisable for the volunteers to remove the lights.
Keith Reid is chair of the committee.
He explained: “The committee decided, on the grounds of government advice around COVID, to leave the lights up.
“This is because our volunteers have to work very closely together, both in the forklift cradles and on the ground to disconnect, lower, transport and store the lighting shapes.”
Keith went on to say: “The shapes will no doubt suffer from the extra 10 months of weather and traffic pollution, but our team’s health is the priority.
“As a result, some time in November, each wall, lamppost, bridge and cross-street illumination will have to be plugged in and powered up to test them.
“Faulty bulbs will have to be changed in situ from the forklift cradles and this means that there will still be some traffic disruption.”
And Keith added that the popular switch-on event for the lights, which usually takes place in the Wellmeadow in late November, was unlikely to happen this year.
He said: “So far, we are assuming that there will be no switch-on event and I guess that Santa might not be touring Blairgowrie and Rattray.
“However, no one can foresee how the guidelines will look in four months’ time.”
Committee members are also looking to raise funds to revamp Santa’s sleigh to make it COVIDsecure, replace the lights on Leslie Street and the string lights on the bridge.
Last year, the cancellation of the switch-on event and Santa’s tour of the town in the run-up to Christmas saw the committee take a £3000 hit to its usual annual fundraising efforts.