Hundreds of local residents have announced their intention to visit Moorland Road in Bath this afternoon, coincidentally at the same time the Christmas lights are being switched on.
Photo courtesy of @AmazingMoorland
It was announced at the start of November that the annual Christmas light switch-on event in the popular shopping area would be cancelled after the Council advised there were safety fears for those attending.
Owner of the This ‘N’ That shop, David Pye, who organises the switch-on said that the Council had contacted him about the event after a crowd of people attending last year spilled out into the road.
He was advised that he was at risk of being sued by anyone who may be injured during the event, and that to make the switch-on safe he would require the road being closed and public liability insurance.
Mr Pye said that he wouldn’t be prepared to take the risk of anyone being injured, and that the businesses on Moorland Road can’t afford the cost of the insurance required.
He has said though that he doesn’t blame Bath and North East Somerset Council for approaching him regarding the safety of the event.
This afternoon will see hundreds of shoppers meeting up in Moorland Road, but not because they have been invited to attend the switch-on.
We’re happy to encourage locals to head over the Moorland Road from about 4pm onwards, as that is (in our opinion) the best time to go shopping on a Saturday afternoon.
If the Christmas lights just happen to switch on when you’re in the area (at around 4.30pm perhaps…), enjoy them and join in with the community spirit!
Make sure you tweet/send us your photos of your shopping trip, we’d love to see them.
Is anyone shopping on @AmazingMoorland later? @NOWBath
— Cllr David Dixon (@votedave) November 22, 2014
3 Comments
ChristopherH87
Tuesday 25th November, 2014 at 00:41Also, ‘the council’ is quite a broad term – in this case it will (I assume) refer to the public officials, rather than the elected councillors – can’t see this being something debated at a full council meeting…
Cllr David Dixon
Saturday 22nd November, 2014 at 14:39a) no one said anything about an event.
b) if you read the article you will see that the Council never tried to stop any planned event.
Westyfield2
Saturday 22nd November, 2014 at 13:25Hang on… Isn’t that councillor, who claims to support the event, from the ruling party of the same council that tried to shut down the event?