Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree……..

The Christmas tree standing in the middle of the Market Place in Bedlington has just been subjected to a senseless act of vandalism. Whilst walking up the street last week, a group of our finest young ladies were seen by a couple to be trying to rip off the lighting strings. After remonstrating with these young ladies and asking why they were behaving in such a mindless way the couple reported their encounter so an inspection of the damage could be carried out. This has now been done and several strings have been damaged with the result that none of the lights in those strings work now. Great start to the festive period!

The point is that these lights along with the tree and other displays have all been bought by the parish ratepayers of West Bedlington who now face a possible extra cost for damages. That will undoubtedly include the parents of the very people who have caused the damage, as well as the rest of us of course! Hopefully the CCTV cameras in the Market Place will have caught the people involved and restitution can be sought once the culprits have been identified!

This beckons a further question concerning public Xmas lighting in general. Having just read a report which outlines the facts that in an age and an area where energy impoverishment is a real issue, agreements on carbon neutrality and energy price inflation are all factors can we really justify such displays of extravagant use of energy? No doubt the first council who takes this argument to its logical conclusion will be accused of unnecessary Dickensian austerity!

The report also mentioned the fact that whilst our rural areas in the North and West could well be in darkness soon the prevalence of criminality in the South East of the county could well be a reason why the lights stay on here. Maybe I should rejig the first two paragraphs"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦