Following the planting of two permanent living trees at the Library and Parker Street corner there were requests for the Councillors to look at making provision for the top end of Rishton and plant something on The Esplanade.
Cllr Ken Moss said, "We looked at planting on The Espanade but to be honest there is nowhere fully suitable as each flower bed is used to capacity and makes a nice display all year round. It would also have cost a small fortune to run electrical cabling that far from the main utilities loop so it was just a non-starter unfortunately. The Turrets was therefore decided on as the best place and now all three areas of Rishton will have a tree."
Government cuts have left the area budgets severely depleted and Christmas is a major annual cost which is why the Councillors are looking at ways of making long term provision using one-off expenditure. Vandalism to the lights at both the Library and Parker Street have necessitated two new sets of lights and the figurines for the crib are also in need of replacement. There will also be no trees over the shops in Rishton this year as the annual cost has now exceeded £1,500 and previous requests to the shops for contributions have not yielded fruit.
Cllr Moss added, "It is a shame that the Christmas budget isn't as big as it was but we need to be practical about this. We were spending well over £2,000 every year for about a month's worth of decorations and that isn't sustainable. The new tree, cabling, lights and figurines have cost £2,160 which is still a big amount but by planting permanent trees it means that we don't need to worry about finding that in future years."
The line-up of Christmas events in Rishton will be announced shortly.
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