There's a huge question mark over the future of a Fenland town's Christmas lights after councillors refused to discuss the terms of handing them over to volunteers to run.
In a move described as "outrageously undemocratic", March mayor Cllr Andrew Woollard read out a statement at Monday night's town council meeting, which basically put an end to any debate over how a new Christmas lights committee would be allowed to run the hugely popular festive lights switch-on.
Cllr Woollard's move came after a decision by the council last month to defer handing over the running of the lights to a volunteer-led committee to give themselves a chance to seek legal advice on the new group's proposed constitution.
But when agenda item eight came up for discussion at March Town Hall on Monday, Cllr Woollard announced he would be reading out the statement, and that would be the end of the matter.
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In his statement, Cllr Woollard accused the current council-run Christmas lights committee of volunteers, who were set to become a standalone group, of using delaying tactics and said "too much time had been spent discussing the lights".
He also said it had been decided that the council did not need to seek legal advice on the new group's constitution, as that was down to the group to decide.
Cllr Woollard said the council had agreed to give £20,000 towards the cost of running the lights this festive time, but said it was unfair to demand a guarantee of future funding, as no other group or organisation was given that kind of assurance.
Having delivered the statement, Cllr Woollard tried to move on to the next agenda item, closing down any debate on the matter.
However, Cllr Martin Field, chair of the town council's Christmas lights committee, managed to question the move and said: "That's outrageous and utterly undemocratic."
He said the move had taken away the right of councillors to make a proper decision and accused the town council of wanting to put an end to the Christmas lights.
After the meeting, Jo Pope and Rachel Burry, two of the current members of the March Town Council Christmas Lights Committee who listened to Cllr Woollard's statement, said they were utterly shocked by what had happened.
Jo said: "The council has basically decided to offload the Christmas lights without actually consulting the volunteers they expect to run them.
"It is absolutely disgusting, they expect us to take on the ownership of £150,000 worth of lights, paid for by the people of March, without any discussion on things like storage, insurance or repairs to them
"What happens if we get the lights out of storage in October and they don't work, they are all broken, it will be down to us to replace or repair them, and it will be our fault if there are no Christmas lights this year."
She said the move by the council to sever ties with the Christmas lights and to see a standalone, volunteer-led committee set up instead had come out of the blue at the end of last year.
Rachel added: "We were given a set of terms of reference in January and asked to use them for reference. We considered them and made changes on what we wanted to have included, and now the council has refused to even discuss them.
"The lights committee has discussed the situation after the last meeting, and we are all considering resigning en masse. What is the council going to do then, when there is no committee to hand the lights over to?"
Both Jo and Rachel pointed out that the current lights committee was made up of a small number of volunteers who worked hard to deliver the annual switch-on, holding fundraising events throughout the year to help finance the lights.
Rachel said: "They have put £20,000 in the budget to give to the lights this year, but there is no guarantee that will continue. What will happen then?"
Both women warned that the council's attitude could spell the end of the March Christmas lights, as the volunteers are being asked to take on a huge responsibility without any support from the council.
Speaking after the meeting Cllr Field also warned that the future of the lights is in jeopardy.
He said the council has made a decision to hand over the running of the lights to volunteers, without actually getting their agreement that they would take them on.
"What they might find themselves faced with is no Christmas lights committee and then having to find a whole other group of people to take the job on," said Cllr Field.
He refuted Cllr Woollard's allegation that the current committee had been time-wasting and said the decision to handover the lights was only made at the end of last year, the lights committee met to discuss the issue, and then held a separate meeting to draw up the terms of reference.
Cllr Martin said that it had taken time, and because of his work and family commitments, the final draft was sent in at short notice for last month's council meeting, which was why the decision on the final handover was deferred until this month.
"What they have done tonight is decide without any discussion on the terms of reference that the matter is decided. But how can it be decided when there has been no debate and no vote, and no agreement from the volunteers," added Cllr Field.
"They have also decided without any discussion not to seek the legal advice that councillors asked for at the February meeting."
He continued: "What has happened is utterly and outrageously undemocratic. I would even go so far as to say that the town council has caused more vandalism to the town's Christmas lights by taking this action than the vandals who kicked and damaged the Christmas parcel did in December.
"The decision has left a huge question mark over the future of the Christmas lights switch-on, which is something the whole town enjoys and looks forward to, and that is down to the town council's actions."
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