VANDALS rendered some Larne community Christmas trees potentially lethal last year.
There are now question marks over future festive celebrations, after thieves cut off vital transformers, which left some trees ‘live’ and at full mains voltage. In addition, around 2,100 bulbs were taken out and smashed.
The threat to life and the costs incurred have prompted Larne Borough Council to ask community groups to ‘reconsider their desire to hold a Christmas celebration’.
Larne Borough Council’s development committee was appraised of the festive horror stories in a report which revealed that voltage-reducing transformers - worth up to £70 each - were cut from three trees, leaving the wires ‘live’ and at full mains voltage.
In one case the electricity supply came from a private house rather than an NIE supply box. “The act of removing the transformer could have blown the circuits in this house”, the report stated.
One community group had specifically requested that an NIE supply be erected for Christmas 2006 celebrations, “as they were no longer prepared to run the cables from a private house, as the home insurance policy did not cover the house if the window was left open to accommodate the Christmas lights”.
The council arranged for the installation of an electricity supply box, at a cost of £500. “However,” the report revealed, “Vandalism to this particular tree was so bad and so persistent that the community group called Larne Borough Council to have the tree removed before Christmas.”
Councillors heard that the cost to ratepayers of the 18 community Christmas trees, including man hours, maintenance and replacement bulbs, was in the region of £9,170.
They were also informed that the trend for community groups to hold individual switching-on ceremonies impacted on the council budget. “This is considerable, not only in terms of supplying trees and ensuring that electrical work is carried out correctly, but in maintaining these trees during a six-week period over Christmas and New Year”, the report revealed.
The council has written to community groups, asking each to “give serious thought to Christmas 2007 celebrations and to action that you may be able to take at a community level to help prevent vandalism”.
It was recommended that community groups should be more proactive in managing Christmas trees and that trees should be surrounded with “large metal fences similar to that surrounding the one in Broadway”.
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