A Light in the Night

Christmas lights. Love ‘em or hate ‘em? I have a real problem with the lights in Hitchin. All over town centre there are big lights. This year they have expanded and put lights on side streets and further away from town centre. Big metal sculptures covered in tinsel and fairy lights. They have to be hung by blokes in cherry pickers and are turned on every night at dark--which this time of year is 4:15 - 4:30. Soon it will be getting dark at 4:00. They stay on way into the night a-twinkling away in the night sky. The good news is they have replaced all existing bulbs with environmentally friendly LED lights. But here is where the problem comes in. I picked up a leaflet that said:

It comes at a cost and as well as the BID company, thanks are due to Hitchin Councillors, Hitchin Property Trust, the Arcade company and Hammersmatch. Even with all this support we still need to raise £10,000 to maintain the attractiveness of Hitchin.

What???? £10,000 just to run some old lights over December? £10,000 is a heckuva lot of dosh--about £4000 more than I make in a year. There are so many homeless and vulnerable and poor people in the area. Do they know what £10,000 could do for them?

No matter how I try--I can’t justify the cost. Particularly with all the freezing weather we’ve been having there will be homeless people frozen to death soon. It doesn’t bear thinking about.