Calverton: Festive lights failure leaves village in dark

Hundreds of people were left disappointed when a village Christmas lights switch-on failed - as the lights had not been fully installed.

Crowds gathered in the main square of Calverton, Nottinghamshire, on Saturday but were left waiting in the dark.

The parish council said it had paid Gedling Borough Council £4,600 - more than twice last year's price - to organise the lights.

The borough council has apologised for the mix-up.

It said it had not given contractors the full event timings.

Anne-Marie Partridge took her 12-year-old son and a group of friends along to start the festive season.

"It has really built up over the years and this felt like the biggest it had ever been," she said.

"There was a children's choir, a brass band and mince pies and it felt like a great build-up, but then nothing happened.

"The time came and we waited and waited and everyone just got cold.

"We walked over to the tree in case that was being switched on and found that didn't even have lights on it.

"The children were really upset and a lot of the adults were angry.

"No-one seemed to know what had happened."

Parish council chairman Andy Meads, said they had left the event in the hands of the borough council.

"At the beginning of last week they were here with the cherry-pickers putting the lights up and we didn't think any more about it," he said.

"We had a big button to press at 16:20 and there were two guys in vans with hi-vis jackets and I went over to make sure everything was alright but they were nothing to do with the event.

"So we started to panic a bit, so we thought maybe it was on a timer and we still didn't know they wouldn't come on at 16:20.

"We didn't have a clue what had happened.

"There were plugs hanging out of street lights, the lights in the car park hadn't come on so we thought maybe it was a fuse or they would come on together.

"But 16:20 came and went, and we had to tell everyone it was off."

Mr Meads said he tried to ring Gedling councillors but could not get an answer.

He added he had seen the rest of the lights being installed on Monday.

In a statement, Gedling Borough Council apologised and admitted it had not passed on the date of the event to contractors.

A spokesman said: "We will not be charging Calverton Parish Council for the event and we will reimburse the costs for the brass band and mince pies.

"We take great pride in providing events at Christmas, across the borough, and we will be reviewing our processes to prevent this from happening in the future."

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