Moving on to Christmas 2017 - It might be sunny outside but now is the time for me to apply for the license for us to hang the festive lights in Waterlooville Town centre. Dealing with Hampshire County Council and Southern Electric is a challenge! The assurance is that they have made it easier this year. I am unsure that is true. Filling in a form talking about 'windage', 'eccentricity', bracket heights, bracket lows, etc, etc. Difficult to give answers when you do not understand the questions. Finding out if we need a structural competency survey. The list continues. Easy it is not. Yesterday I almost threw the PC out of the window. In the end I sent the form to a kind person at Havant Council, who admitted she did not understand the questions either. Made me feel better!! At the end of the day I am a mere volunteer trying to bring Christmas to Waterlooville. Watch for the next stage of the licensing saga!!
Some of you may have read previous blogs as I have tried to work my way through the bureaucracy of licensing and installation for festive lights in the town centre. In fairness the paperwork has been easier (was started in JUNE!) mainly because a lovely lady called Katie in Havant Borough Council has been helping me. So why am I saying there will be no festive lights in Waterlooville this year? Scottish and Southern Electrics SSE!! We have to get permission to hang the motifs from their lighting columns (also know as lamp posts!) To do that we have to get an installer approved by them!! Our installer from last year retired and we had to find a new one. To hang, plug in and flick a switch on 8 motifs, put the lights in the Xmas tree, plug in and flick a switch, and also hang some battery powered lights in the trees (and remove) Our first quote COST £3500 Which we felt was excessive. We did find a local installer, Cl...