South Lanarkshire Council are putting Blantyre’s Christmas Trees up today. Contractors at both High Blantyre and Low Blantyre are getting ready for the switch on on Sunday.
Blantyre is the only town in South Lanarkshire to have TWO official trees and TWO sets of Christmas Lights.
Its a subject we receive many messages about at this time of year.
Volunteer Group Blantyre Community Committee formed in 2012 to try to improve the festive lighting and successfully campaigned to get a second Christmas tree at the Sports Centre, even paying for it to be taller one year! They also paid for the infrastructure through fundraising to enable permanent electrics. Additionally, they bought many thousands of extra lights in recent years for the trees.
Festive Street lights (features) on Main Street have been renewed 2 years ago, with many of them brand new, brighter and more energy efficient. However, many of the features on Glasgow Road could do with an upgrade, especially the older red ones ,but with new lights costing almost £40,000 to buy, install and store, its a tall order to get a whole second street lit to public expectations. That said, through YOUR kind donations, in recent years Blantyre Telegraph and Blantyre Oscars have been “chipping away” on this subject and raised enough to buy 3 new lights, which are up on Glasgow Road.
Want to get involved and try to improve next years lights?
Why not come along to Blantyre Community Committee’s meetings. They always need more volunteers and let’s see how we can collectively try to improve the lights further.
