Three out of five people who took part in an on line poll rejected the idea of spending £30,000 on an upgrade for Wisbech Christmas lights.
When voting ended at 5pm tonight, 306 readers had cast their vote – with 58 per cent, 176 readers, voting to reject the idea.
There were 119 votes cast in favour of spending the cash, with two readers ticking the ‘not sure’ box and a further eight ‘not bothered’.
The poll was set up by the Wisbech Standard following a decision by the town council last week to press on with plans, if possible, to use £30,000 of reserves for this year on extra Christmas lights.
The lights ‘make over’ was first proposed in May by Councillor Steve Tierney who said the “whole plan would run alongside a continuous public fundraising campaign – with local individuals, groups and businesses encouraged to put money in the pot to help the Christmas Lights Project.”
This week he wrote on his blog that “I’d really like to make this happen for Christmas 2014. Time is now very short, and there probably isn’t time to do it this year, but I cannot say where the harm is in trying to do so, if the people of Wisbech approve of the idea. Which, so far, it rather seems the majority do.”
He added: “We have the chance here to do something great for the town. It may be that none of us are still here this time next year – perhaps the town council will be dominated by a bunch of crazy racists who want to paint everything red and white and blame all their failings on people who are different to them? Anything is possible. Wouldn’t it be nice, if the people of the town approve, to just do this? I think it would.”
Council minutes show that in May “members decided, unanimously - on a proposal by Councillor Tierney, seconded by Councillor Bucknor – that the council would create an ear-marked reserve of no more than £30,000 for the possible purchase of additional Christmas lights for the town.”
The council also decided that “the use of that funding would be subject to approval by the people of Wisbech, which would be ascertained through a consultation exercise.
“In the event of public support for this spending, a fund-raising campaign would be undertaken with the aim of returning that financial resource to the town council’s reserves.”
Opposition members have criticised the proposals with one claiming the scheme was being rushed through and “what’s now being done we consider extremely unprofessional, undemocratic and shambolic”.
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