By Julie Waters
IT’S beginning to look a lot like Christmas thanks to the generosity of Bangor Chamber of Commerce who have gifted the seaside city a new Yuletide tree.
The 30-feet artificial tree will take pride of place in the heart of the city outside the Old Market House, at Bangor’s Main Street.
Seasonal greetings are set to sweep through the town, as the tree will be accompanied by the council’s new decorative lighting, including road crossing frames and light columns, throughout the city centre.
Frank Shivers, president of Bangor Chamber of Commerce, said the business community was delighted to ‘put a bit back into the city’ with their festive present.
He praised the Chamber’s partnership approach with the council saying businesses were keen to work in partnership with the council in a collaborative approach.
“Ultimately if the city looks nice, people will come in and shop, so from a business perspective it makes sense to contribute,” he said.
Mr Shivers highlighted the chamber’s ongoing success, with its membership continuing to grow, following on from the successful ‘Get Into Bangor’ campaign.
Councillors at a recent Place and Prosperity Committee, formally agreed to accept the tree from the Bangor Chamber and cover the annual cost of installation and taking it down each year.
Bangor Central councillor Craig Blaney, led the praise for the chamber saying: “I think this is a fantastic initiative, the chamber has shown real vision. They have grown (in membership) massively recently, I know they are bringing in a lot of new businesses.
“When combined with the new lights, it will make a real difference to Main Street. I would like to thank the chamber, they have a vibrant board and I can’t wait to see the tree.”
Comber councillor Patricia Morgan said she was ‘delighted the chamber has come up with this idea’ and ‘I would like to think that Newtownards and Comber would follow’.
Mayor Gillian McCollum, echoed her party colleague’s approval for the new Bangor Christmas tree, and asked if this idea could be ‘rolled out’ across other towns in the borough.
Brian Dorrian, director of Place and Prosperity, said the possibility of new Christmas trees could be considered by the borough’s city and town advisory groups, that are made up of local representatives from local businesses, the community, youth and faith organisations, as well as councillors and council officials.
Newtownards councillor Richard Smart also welcomed the ‘fantastic partnership’ and said that he hoped other similar partnerships ‘will be unlocked’.
However, the Ulster Unionist councillor said he was also aware of discussions that were ongoing about the Bangor and Newtownards Christmas light switch-on events. Mr Smart said it would be a ‘huge loss’ if the two events did not go ahead.
Sharon Mehaffey, the council’s tourism manager, explained the events team are currently working to ‘weather proof’ the events, and said it had been ‘very disappointing’ to cancel last year’s event in Bangor due to the poor weather.
The council officer said the team had engaged with both Bangor and Newtownards chambers of trade and were looking at a number of activities possibly held over two days, in both towns.
In response, Mr Smart asked that more details about the proposed Christmas lights switch on events be brought back to the full council meeting held at the end of the month. He again stressed that it would be a ‘huge loss’ and he would be ‘hugely reluctant that we would withdraw it’.
Mr Dorrian said an update report would be brought before the full council but the local authority was keen to avoid causing disappointment if the events had to be cancelled due to adverse weather and staff were ‘trying to proof it as much as we can’.
