Lytham St Anne’s Jubilee celebrations to mark the Queen’s 70-year reign are being muted by a Lancashire County Council (LCC) edict demanding that lamp posts which are over seven years old undergo health and safety tests to ensure they are strong enough to hold bunting. LCC bureaucrats are insisting that the local councils shell out £55 for each lamp post for the health and safety inspection – and if a lamp post doesn’t pass the check it can’t be used to hang decorations such as bunting, baskets and lights. LCC say the assessments are to protect the public – but local officials say they do not have the funds to spend.
A Councillor for Fleetwood East, Lorraine Beavers told the Mail on Sunday, ‘We are not going to put up bunting on lamp posts in Fleetwood for the Jubilee. It’s an added cost we don’t need on top of everything else. Incredibly, the new rule also applies to the poppies we hang from lamp posts for Remembrance Sunday. They are made of plastic and weigh next to nothing.’ She also complained that the costs for her area would be £5,000, adding that LCC also now stipulate a 20kg weigh limit for hanging baskets.
LCC said, ‘The strength of columns varies depending upon where they are in their life cycle, and it’s vital that they are tested before anything is attached to them for safety.’
2 Responses
Have members of LCC gone mad? Are lamp posts strong enough to hold bunting which must weigh in ounces? Talk about waste of taxpayers’ money. We will probably be the only county in the country that doesn’t display bunting as the quoted cost is well out of proportion with any work to be done.
The idea beggars belief, especially following on from money that has had to be spent on all things to do with Covid over the past two years.
Councillors; you are a joke.
Residents in Tarleton have been advised the same, no bunting without testing of lampposts. Madness!!?