Bah humbug! Christmas tree cash cap after 'ridiculous' £6k overspend
Spending on Christmas trees is to be reined in after the council ended up going thousands of pounds over budget last year.
The bill for Christmas trees in Sandwell was £16,000 last year – £6,000 over budget. Council cabinet member Councillor Maria Crompton said that while bosses do not want to be Scrooges they must keep spending on trees within budget this Christmas with just one tree per town likely to be funded by the authority this time round.
Councillor Crompton, cabinet member for safer communities, said: “We spent £16,000 across Sandwell at Christmas last year. It cost way more than our budget.
“It is getting absolutely ridiculous – it is getting way worse and we haven’t got the money.”
The £16,000 spend was on 16 trees, equating to £1,000 a tree – some of which measured up to 30ft in height and with towns often buying more than one.
The overspend on the trees had to be found from other departments, added Councillor Crompton.
Money is usually dished out to each of Sandwell borough’s six towns – Oldbury, Rowley Regis, Smethwick, Tipton, Wednesbury and West Bromwich – for them to spend how they want, led by a delegated councillor. But this year bosses at the authority holding the purse strings said they will be much stricter over how much is spent on buying trees, with towns likely to be restricted to one tree each.
Councillor Crompton added: “We are looking to have one tree per town this year but they can have more if they get outside sponsorship. I am trying to get over to them that we can’t spend more than we can afford. I am sure residents would not want us doing that.”
Special events are held in each town every year and Coronation Street’s David Platt turned on Wednesbury’s Christmas lights last December. In 2017 the council agreed to spend £600,000 on hiring out new Christmas lights over a four-year period to keep towns twinkling over the holidays.
