By Olivia Whaley
Residents in Leicester were left baffled at the city’s ‘attempt’ at Christmas decorations this year.
The 50ft Christmas tree was left half decorated after the council admitted that the tinsel was too heavy for its branches.
This year a whopping £220,000 was to put towards the city’s Christmas decorations and an additional £50,000 has been allocated to update the stock and to cover any damages.
City centre director Sarah Harrison said: “It was a long, complicated job to make the city look beautifully festive.”
The tree, which is the city’s centre piece is worth £4,800 and comes from Kielder Forest in Northumberland.
Psychology student, Kiran Mankoo lives in Leicester. She said: “I was so excited to see the Christmas decorations in the city centre, but they just turned out to be embarrassing.”
Workmen have now started to decorate the tree again, this time minus the tinsel.
Mrs Harrison said: “They’ve obviously put the tinsel on the top of the tree first and realised the branches were being bent out of place.”
The decorations were mocked by locals across the city, some suggesting that workmen had forgotten to finish it or that the rest of the decorations had been stolen.
Local resident, Yasmin Moussa was left disappointed by the decorations. She said: “The council have put so much money towards the decorations this year, so I think a lot of residents had high hopes for them. Once again, we were left pretty disappointed with their efforts.”
Others took to social media to express their views on the half-hearted effort, suggesting that the decorations ‘must be a joke’.
Daniel O’Donovan published a picture of the Christmas tree on Twitter. He told the BBC that the ‘tree has always been a bit abysmal.’
He believed that there would be more effort this year. He suggested that after so many great things had happened in Leicester there should have been ‘something a little bit more special.’
Mrs Harrison added that they have got ‘hundreds and hundreds of mult
i-coloured LED tea lights’ which will be put on display.
The official Christmas lights were switched on by the Lord Mayor on Thursday 17 November at 6.30pm.
The annual Winter Food and Drink will also be making an appearance in the city centre on Sunday 20 November.
