TRADERS in Wellington have been accused of taking away the special religious symbolism of Christmas and trying to turn it into a jingle tills boom time.

Members of Wellington Town Council rejected a proposal for the annual switching-on of the festive lights to be held on November 23 – five Saturdays before Christmas – to allow traders to make the most of that seasonal time of year when people are out buying gifts.

Cllr Mark Lithgow put forward the suggestion following discussions held with traders at a recent meeting of the Wellington Town Centre Working Group.

Last year councillors decided that the lights switch-on would be held a week earlier than normal to give traders a longer lead-in to the Christmas shopping period.

But the request to do the same this year was turned down by Wellington Town Council at its latest meeting despite a mixture of views among councillors.

Cllr John Thorne, who told councillors he was an atheist, said it was traditional for the switching-on of the lights to involve the local churches and have children singing about Christmas.

“What the traders want to do is take away the meaning of Christmas and making it more about making money at Christmas,” he said.

“I’ve been shocked at some of the things I’ve heard from traders. Some say they need to make as much money as possible running up to Christmas in order to survive for the rest of the year. If they have to survive on Christmas takings, then something is wrong.

“We are a Christian community but I was hearing suggestions that that wasn’t the case anymore and we don’t have to have the lights switch-on then.

“I’ve even heard it suggested that Father Christmas was invited by Coca-Cola because they have it on the side of their lorries!”

Cllr Thorne said that if the traders had their way they would probably put the lights up in September to ‘make the most out of Christmas’.

Cllr Vivienne Stock-Williams said the switching-on should be on Saturday, November 30, as it would coincide with Advent which symbolised the ‘spirit of Christmas’.

But Cllr Lithgow was hugely disappointed at the comments he received from his council colleagues who were intimating that traders were exploiting Christmas for commercial gains.

“We had the good sense to listen to the people last year and have it a week earlier than normal,” he said. “We didn’t have one complaint about it. We are here on this council because we represent the people of Wellington –we aren’t asking them not to believe in Christmas.

“We will be one of the last towns in Somerset to switch-on their lights – none of the churches complained about having it a week early last year.”

Cllr Lithgow has previously described the traders as the ‘lifeblood of this town’.

Cllr Dean Bradley said that having the Christmas lights switched-on a week later would reduce electricity consumption and help ‘save the planet’.

While the Mayor, Cllr Janet Lloyd, said the issue of the switch-on was discussed every year. “This should be all about Christmas – not commercial,” she said.

Councillors voted narrowly in favour of having the switching-on ceremony on November 30 as opposed to the traders’ preferred date of November 23.