THE Bishop's Cleeve Christmas lights switch-on remains on hold as parish councillors once again delay their support.
Safety tests have to be carried out before the parish council will agree to letting event organisers plug in their PA system. The facilities committee agreed that organisers would have to use an external power box instead of entering the community building.
Before permission can be granted for this, the council has to carry out a risk assessment. A qualified electrician is expected to do this on Monday.
But the Chamber of Commerce is determined to go ahead with the popular festive event a week today. It yesterday vowed to save the Christmas switch-on. It comes a couple of weeks after the parish council voted against allowing the Chamber to use its gardens outside the parish offices due to health and safety concerns.
They said the overspill of people onto Church Road would be reckless and dangerous. The Chamber has since moved the event back to it former position on the top end of Tesco's car park.
A determined David Billingham, president of the Chamber, said: "The lights will be going on next Saturday. Even if the risk assessment doesn't go through, and if for some reason it is not approved, the lights will be switched on irrespectively."
On Monday, the facilities committee agreed to supply an external power source in a locked box, after the Chamber was banned from entering the community building last year.
Phil Taylor, chairman of the facilities committee, said there was a lack of communication from the Chamber. He said: "We were not made aware of what the plans are for the switch-on event. We do not know what time they want to switch the lights on. We have not heard anything from them."
But Mr Billingham hit back at his claims, saying organisers had met the parish council.
He said: "That is ridiculous. We first went to the parish council at the start of 2012, and we went some four to five weeks ago stating out what we planned to do."
The community building has been booked out by a dodgeball play group and Danceworks for dance classes during the event. A caretaker will be on duty to prevent unauthorised access.
