With Christmas drawing ever closer, people are looking for fun ways to celebrate the holidays with their loved ones. This could include going to watch the Christmas lights being turned on in the town centre, going to a charity Christmas gig, going to watch a church choir, or simply just enjoying the Christmas tree in the centre of your village. These activities all sound very appealing – until health and safety gets involved!
Christmas is a period during which UK residents traditionally get enraged over silly 'elf and safety' scandals, with many left feeling that H&S regulations are solely in place to ruin people’s fun at Christmas.
We have searched the internet to find you some of this year’s most absured ‘Elf and Safety Stories:
Solihull, a small town on the outskirts of Birmingham did not enjoy an official Christmas lights switch on this year – because of health and safety concerns. Traditionally the town enjoyed local celebrities, Santa clause, Sport stars, charities, choir groups and local dance groups turning on the town’s spectacular Christmas lights. However, this year the event organisers decided not to comply with tradition because they were expecting huge crowds of people on the night, which could have presented the town with health and safety issues.
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Onto Saltdean, where a charity Christmas show, that had already sold 150 tickets out of 200, was cancelled due to health and safety concerns regarding the buildings fire escapes and the lighting in the venue. A chairwoman of the trustees of the SCA stated “From the sale of the bar we could have £500, which we didn’t think outweighed the risk.” After 5 years of showcasing the local rock talent this year was going to be the last year that this Christmas charity show was due to run. The event manager stated that he was “devastated” that the show was unable to go on.
Read more of this story here.
In two South Tyneside Villages Christmas trees have had be cut down to size because of ‘elf and safety rules. In Cleadon and East Bolton it was decided that their 8 meter festive firs were too close to power lines, and it would be unsafe for workers to plant the trees using a crane. It was explained that “to ensure we do not have a safety-related incident on site, during tree installation and removal, the crane wagon boom and lifting equipment comes into contact with the energised supply cables we should reduce the height of these two trees as a matter of public and worker safety.” – The councillor is furious with the decision stating that this decision is “utter madness”
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Even though some of the health and safety stories you may read over the Christmas and winter period may sound ridiculous, please remember that health and safety is in place to protect people – not to ruin your Christmas fun!
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