Christmas officially over in Wick
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Christmas is officially over in Wick with the lights finally coming down yesterday after being up three months longer than usual.
Undaunted by the clock change a hard working team of volunteers started the dismantling process at 6.30am and had completed the task by 11am.
Claire Mackenzie, chairperson of the Wick Christmas Lights Committee, said: "Everything is all down and all tidied away. There is no sign of Christmas left. It was fairly quiet at that time of day so we were all done and tidied up by 11 o'clock."
She explained that quite a bit of damage had been caused with the decorations being up longer than normal in all weather. "We have a few lights out and some damage to other things," the chairperson said. "Hopefully we can make a plan and get the repairs done throughout the summer."
Ms Mackenzie went on to say that the task was made easier with the donation of machinery from Hugh Simpson Contractors, and three teams of two volunteers helped with the dismantling along with other members of the lights committee.
Permission to remove the festive decorations was recently given from the Highland Council to all the communities in Caithness.
The group is looking ahead to Christmas 2021 and feeling positive about most of the usual activities going ahead.
The delay in getting the lights down was due to the Covid-19 regulations and the fact that the work was classed as non-essential.
An email granting permission for the decorations to be dismantled was sent out to local groups a couple of weeks ago by Caithness ward manager Alex Macmanus.
Pointing out that the council had needed to follow the Scottish Government guidelines concerning non-essential work and gatherings of people, he explained that the decorations had started to become a health and safety risk.
He added: "With the risk assessment meeting the Covid guidelines we were happy to agree with the work."
Over the past few months the Wick Christmas lights group met with criticism from members of the public about the lights still being up for so long.
The Christmas lights in Thurso were taken down earlier in March.
Related articles: Weather damage as Christmas lights remain in place in Wick
Removing Christmas decorations from Caithness locations 'not essential work'
