I was always under the impression that local councils had a duty to their council tax payers to ensure they made the best use of their money. Well, more fool me, for about the last 10 years we have attended an event with a local council for their annual christmas lights switch on. The event wasn't run by us we merely attended with some of our attractions. Normally about 25-30 different fairground attractions occupied the main street and paid rent to the council. This year there will only be room for about 10 items, the reason is that the council needs the rest of the space to erect the ice rink that they have hired.

We have attended events with ice rinks before and normally the ice rinks can cost anything upward of £1500-00 to hire. With the loss in revenue from the fairground rides the council has suddenly found that it has exhausted its budget and may not be able to switch the Christmas lights on!!!

Is this mismanagement or merely incompetence?