A Christmas tree described by a town council as an ‘absolute disgrace’ has been removed after the authority demanded a replacement.
Wisbech Town Council in Cambridgeshire wrote on Facebook after accusations that the fir looked like it was ‘half dead or dying’.
It said it was aware of the state of the tree and had since demanded a replacement – a shorter 28ft tall tree which Terry Jordan, the council’s clerk, said was a ‘healthy specimen’.
He said the supplier had told them that hot weather this year had affected taller trees.
‘When we went back to the supplier, that’s what they were saying, because of the long period of dry weather, trees have found it more difficult to get the nutrients and the water supply that they needed, and I think they said that applied to the larger trees,’ he said.
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He said the original tree was delivered on Wednesday and ‘on inspection we realised there were some areas where there appeared to be some dead branches and gaps in the tree’.
‘It’s a simple case of when you order any goods that are not 100%, go back to the supplier,’ said Mr Jordan.
‘They’ve now sent a new tree which has been installed. That is a very good, healthy specimen, and we are now happy.’
In 2023, the nearby town of March hit the headlines due to its wonky Christmas tree.
Then, residents compared their ‘wonky’ Christmas tree to Pisa’s famously lop-sided monument.
March resident Kimberly Williams, 50, told the BBC: ‘The Italians have got the leaning tower of Pisa – March has now got the leaning tree of Christmas.’
She went on to say: ‘I think we should be proud of it.’
Robert Moat, a 64-year-old fellow resident of March, told BBC Radio Cambridgeshire: ‘I’ve been here four years and the tree’s been wonky every year, but at least they make the effort to put something up.’
Others who commented on a post in a local Facebook group were a little less lenient in their criticism of the festive installation, with some suggesting the tree was an ‘embarrassment’ to the town.
One user, who described the angle of the tree’s trunk is ‘such a shame’, wrote it seemed to have been ‘plonked down without much care’, adding ‘the branches at the bottom need sorting out’.
In response to such comments, volunteers from the March Christmas Lights Committee, which was responsible for putting up and decorating the tree, wrote that they ‘did not physically choose the tree, having ordered it months ago’.
They added: ‘It’s down to the supplier/luck as to what overall size/condition of tree we receive in the end.’
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