Council slammed after spending £20,000 on 'rubbish' Christmas tree

A council has been accused of spending more than £20,000 on a “rubbish” Christmas tree.

Residents have labelled Boston town's festive decorations a "disgrace" after the council chose not to put up lights and instead spend thousands on an artificial tree.

Boston Borough Council has blamed the lack of lights on cuts to funding, but town mayor Councillor Anne Dorrian has called the situation a "complete and utter omnishambles”.

She has shared a document containing the costs of the new Christmas tree on her Facebook page, which revealed it would cost taxpayers £22,290 over two years.

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Resident Kaye Brown believes the amount of money spent on the festive tree is a "disgrace".

"It's a poor show, it's not attracting people to the town or getting anyone in the Christmas spirit," she said.

Brown said she was disappointed the council had not accepted a group of volunteers offer to put up the Christmas lights.

Local Terry Dawson, 74, added: "It's the way things are going now in Boston, everything seems to be negative. Our council don't seem to have a voice in putting Boston forward.

"I'm fed up of hearing about other places, some smaller than Boston, getting more effort and energy.

“If I was to use the word 'dead', I think that would just about sum it up.

"It's a market town that's always had a lot of good character and it's just disappeared. The town has lost its soul, it really has."

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Resident Helen Wright, 59, was also unhappy, saying: "One late night shopping I heard a little girl crying saying 'where are the Christmas lights?'.

“If Spalding and other places can make the effort then why can't we? The tree looks rubbish. It's all just really bad."

Councillor Paul Skinner, leader of Boston Borough Council, said they recognised the criticism from locals and it wasn’t easy to cut funding for the Christmas decorations.

He added: “It is, however, important for people to understand that cuts to funding was agreed by members as part of the annual budget in 2016 , Boston Borough Council agreed to continue funding the tree and that the Boston Town Area Committee (BTAC) would raise funds for the lights.

"As part of that agreement with BTAC, the group of volunteers were advised that they would have to be self-funded in three years, if the group broke up for any reason the lights would be returned to BTAC.”