Pembury Parish Council is saddened to report that Kent County Council (KCC) have refused the permit for their Christmas light display in 2019 for health and safety reasons. Council Chairman, Cllr Katy Brooks, said she was “very saddened that we are not able to have our usual festive display of lights and we know how disappointed the residents will be. This will be a priority for us to work out a remedy for next year.”
KCC finally told the Parish Council that it could not install its normal Christmas lights last week after the street columns were tested earlier in the year. Many of the columns were found to be unsafe and unable to support the weight of the Christmas light motifs of up to 8kg.
Unfortunately, KCC will only allow us to install lights around the village green that weigh under 4kg. They will not allow the other columns to be used at all. The Parish Council has worked with its lighting contractor to come up with an alternative display this year that will comply with KCC’s rules. Due to the weight restriction, in reality this will mean that we can only have garland lights. This will also affect our hanging basket display next summer.
The Chair of the Communications & Events Committee, Cllr Louise Mills said “This is hugely disappointing – especially as the notice from KCC was received so late in the day giving us no time to rectify the situation. Christmas is such a special time of year and I know Pembury residents appreciate the village lights – unfortunately, this year our High Street is going to look a little dimmer.”
Pembury Parish Council will continue to liaise with KCC on the future of the Christmas light and floral display in Pembury.
