Oh Christmas Tree! Dudley's festive celebrations back on track after backlash

The festive centrepiece on Dudley High Street has been replaced free-of-charge – alongside another on The Arcade in Upper Gornal – following the backlash.

Bosses said they didn't "see them" before they were delivered and contacted the suppliers who agreed to replace it free-of-charge, just a day after the first ones were put up.

Councillor Shaz Saleem, cabinet member for highways and public realms, said: "Christmas is such an important time of year and it is important our town centres look festive and welcoming.

"We were very disappointed with the quality of the tree delivered to us in Dudley town centre, shoppers and traders expect much better. We don’t see them before they are delivered and then we decorate them once they have been put in place.

"We have therefore been in touch with the supplier and they have agreed to replace it free of charge."

Councillor Shaukat Ali, one of the St Thomas's ward councillors, said he had been informed by a constituent on Facebook about the original high street tree and was shocked when he went down to see it.

He said: "It started on Facebook with the message and photo from a constituent of mine, who said she had been down to the town and said she was kind of shocked when she saw the tree.

"I then went down to the town myself to have a look at it and I was shocked as the tree didn't look in a good condition, so I took the liberty of speaking to a few people walking by about what they thought of it and they couldn't believe it either.

"The tree just looks in a really poor state and I have seen a lot of comments about how embarrassed people are about this and how the council can't get even this right and we have the situation in Dudley about how everyone is struggling and now we have a tree looking like this."

Among the people expressing their own disappointment about the tree was long-time Dudley resident Allan Woodall, with the 67-year-old saying he was disgusted at what he had seen.

He said: "It's just disgusting and I'm all in favour of recycling, but not with last year's Christmas tree. It's just really bad and what gets me most about it is that the tree was clearly cut down a few weeks ago and the branches were damaged and been brought here on a low-loader, but even after seeing the state it was in, they still decided to put it up.

"I think it's another thing the council hasn't done right in Dudley, alongside the transport and Castle Hill being closed and closing shops, and the least they can do now is replace it, get their money back for this one and put a new one in place."

The uproar around the tree in Dudley followed on from similar tree issues in Upper Gornal, where residents had complained about the tree that had been installed and councillors had worked to replace it.

They will be decorated over the coming days as part of the build-up to Christmas lights switch-on events across the borough.