Subscribe to trusted local news
If you are accessing this story via Facebook but you are a subscriber then you will be unable to access the story. Facebook wants you to stay and read in the app and your login details are not shared with Facebook. If you experience problems with accessing the news but have subscribed, please contact subscriptions@thestrayferret.co.uk. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever. By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.
- Subscription costs less than £1 a week with an annual plan.
Already a subscriber? Log in here.
12
Mar
Christmas trees saved — for now!
Civic Christmas trees in the Harrogate district have been saved — for one year!
North Yorkshire Council agreed in February to stop the provision, erection and dismantlement of trees to parishes free of charge to save £14,000 a year.
Harrogate, Starbeck, Knaresborough, Ripon, Boroughbridge, Masham and Pateley Bridge benefited from the arrangement due to a historic arrangement with Harrogate Borough Council, which was abolished in 2023.
Other parishes in North Yorkshire, with the exception of Scarborough, Whitby and Filey, had to pay for their own trees so in February, North Yorkshire Council decided to get rid of the service entirely to create a level playing field.
That meant parish councils would have to decide whether to pick up the tab, adding an extra cost to council tax bills, or have no festive trees.
But Councillor Andrew Williams, a member of the council’s controlling Conservatives and Independents group who represents Ripon Minster and Moorside, said this week council leader Cllr Carl Les had agreed to his request to continue to provide the service for another 12 months.
Cllr Williams told this week’s Ripon City Council meeting that he pointed out to Cllr Les that the decision to axe the trees had been made after the parish councils affected had already set their budgets for 2026/27.
Speaking afterwards, Cllr Williams said he was pleased with the decision but accepted it would only last for one year.
He said:
It’s difficult for me to justify that Ripon should have a level playing field on other issues if we are getting a better deal than other places in North Yorkshire on Christmas trees.
'Diddums if posh people have to pay'
Cllr Matt Walker, a Liberal Democrat who represents Knaresborough West, previously questioned the decision not to provide Christmas trees.
He said:
"North Yorkshire Council is playing a cynical game of 'pass the parcel' with its budget. By cutting community services like Christmas trees without any consultation, they are forcing town and parish councils to pick up the tab or watch our high streets wither."
Independent Cllr Michelle Donohue-Moncrieff, representing Hunmanby and Sherburn, took a somewhat different view.
She said:
Unfortunately, the parishes that I represent don't have the bourgeois luxury of an upper tier authority paying for their Christmas trees and their flowers and cutting their grass. They live in the real world. So, I'm really diddums if posh people in nice parts of the county are going to actually have to pay for it themselves. I really couldn't give a stuff.
0