Once again, Connah’s Quay Christmas trees have become a talking point on social media and even national news outlets, after a picture and video of the Town Council’s (unlit) tree from last year started doing the rounds recently.
Due to the vandalism of various Christmas trees in previous years, the Town Council decided to plant a rooted Christmas tree in a slightly different location set back from the road.
It was hoped that this would reduce the incidences of vandalism, be kinder to the environment, and could become a focal point of positivity at Christmas for years to come.
As part of a local tree-planting project delivered by Flintshire County Council in 2019, they very kindly included a rooted Christmas tree in the bed near to the Flintshire Connects centre in the town.
Unfortunately, as the pictures circulating show, the tree has not faired very well in its first year, and whilst not dead, it does not look healthy. Due to the early hot summer and the fact that COVID meant staff were only able to undertake essential works, the tree was not watered. Attempts have been made to revive it with fertiliser, and it is hoped that in time that it will thrive to become an attractive feature.
Given its condition, we will not be lighting this particular tree this year and hadn’t announced that we would be. Instead, a 12/13ft cut Christmas tree with lights pre-installed will be sited in the circular bed at the junction of High Street / Wepre Drive. The tree is being delivered over the weekend of 5th / 6th December and will be connected to power early next week.
A Council spokesperson said “Clearly there is a great deal of interest and strong feeling about having a Christmas tree in the town and we’d like to thank everyone for their suggestions for future years. The Town Council will be placing a large cut tree with lights at the junction of Wepre Drive / High Street this and sincerely hope that people respect the tree and do not vandalise it as in previous years.”
There have been many comments made on social media about the tree, with lots of suggestions and ideas to help bring the community together. We will be compiling all of the feedback (good and bad!) before deciding what we can do next year. If anybody has any suggestions then we’d love to hear from you – please send them to us at info@connahs-quay.co.uk