'Difficult year' - Emotional Fleetwood Town Council update on beloved Christmas event
“Our lives changed overnight and we can only do the best we can each day.”
Fleetwood’s Christmas Lights Switch will be scaled down this year as Fleetwood Town Council staff struggle with ‘a difficult year’.
The festive spectacular will be a ‘smaller event’ than the council had planned due to circumstances that have left the office team with just three members of staff, some of whom have only been working at the council for a year.
In a statement, the Town Council appealed to Fleetwood residents to understand the council is doing its best to keep things going.
Earlier this year two council personnel - Shirleyanne Munro, who was Town Clerk and Councillor Jayne Martin sadly passed away leaving staff heartbroken.
A team member said: “Following what has been an extremely difficult year for my team and I, after the sad passing of our wonderful Town Clerk and one of our lovely councillors, I hope you understand that we are doing our best to keep things going,
“The Firework event will continue as usual, and this has only been possible with help from various people outside of the Council who have supported us through this time.
“With regards to our Christmas event, it will be a smaller event than we had originally planned due to our circumstances.
“Other aspects of the Council have also become a priority, one being our move to the new office and work being carried out at the Senior Citizens Hall, which we hope will be opening sometime next year for it to be used by the community again.”
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They continued to say that the main priority has been the team, of which there are only three staff and at times has whittled down to just two managing the workload - including events, meetings, allotments and other duties.
“We do not have multiple departments. We are also a new team and some of us have only been working for the Council for 12 months. This has been a huge responsibility for all of us as well as dealing with grief alongside all of this.
“Our events may not quite be what we had planned this year, but 2026 has not been what we planned either and it has shown us life can be cruel and we have had to deal with things we never expected to.
“Our lives changed overnight and we can only do the best we can each day.
“For those who have helped my team and I, we are extremely grateful and we could not have got through this without your support.
“All I wish to ask from our wonderful residents is that you have patience and remain kind to my wonderful team who have done an amazing job in very difficult circumstances and we will come back stronger next year and intend to bring joy to our residents in 2027.”