March Christmas Cracker has been permanently pulled from town’s calendar
March Christmas Cracker has been pulled from town’s calendar after a lengthy discussion by councillors.
The popular festive event, which was run by the town council for senior citizens, was last held in 2019 and was put on hold due to the pandemic.
However, at a recent council meeting the re-introduction of the event was discussed following an enquiry from a member of the public.
Minutes of the meeting last month said there had been a previous decision to discontinue the event, which was first held in 1999, which meant a discussion was necessary to determine whether or not it was possible to host the Christmas buffet and entertainment once again.
Former town clerk, Clive Lemmon, who had organised the event every year from its inauguration in 1999 to 2019 was given dispensation to speak at a previous council meeting.
At that meeting he had explained that whilst Covid-19 was the catalyst for the demise of the event, the event had been losing popularity over many years and numbers were down year-on-year.
He presented a number of other factors to councillors for consideration (including retirement of the entertainers, rapidly rising costs, a lack of volunteers, care homes now providing entertainment, retirement of the provider of the sound system, difficulties regarding the classification of “senior citizen”, risk assessments and potential SAG requirements) that he had experienced during his time as organiser of the event.
He suggested that if the event was to continue, that it be organised by someone other than the town council, with the option of a March Town Council grant/donation being available/applied for.
A lengthy discussion followed with Councillor Nigel Spencer pointing out that a veterans Christmas lunch had been organised, and Councillor Gary Christy advising the charitable organisation FACT would also be organising a Christmas event for senior citizens (a date has yet to be set).
As a result town councillors unanimously agreed to discontinue the Christmas Cracker, but would be happy to support the FACT-run Christmas event, once that was organised.
