Update from Balfour Beatty!

Well I'm not going to claim this as a victory *just yet*, but since you're all long-overdue an update I wanted to give you some good news that we've received just this afternoon. We had been told by the council some time ago that they were going to consider whether or not they could just replace the lanterns at the top of the existing street lamps. After a lot of pressing for updates, I was told last week that the columns on the high street would be replaced with new black "heritage" ones like we have now. I thought this was good news, but it turns out that the existing street lamps were strengthened when they were installed so that they could support the Christmas lights. This meant that the replacements suggested by Balfour Beatty would still mean the end of the Christmas lights! During this last week the clerk to the Town Council, the Christmas Lights committee chairman and I have been working together to co-ordinate a response to Balfour Beatty. The Town Council's clerk called for a meeting between Chatteris Town Council, Balfour Beatty, the county council and the affected local groups. Since requesting that meeting we have received an email saying that Balfour Beatty will no longer be replacing the lamp posts. Instead, they will now refurbish or replace the lamps at the tops of the posts. This means that the existing black lamp posts in East Park Street, the High Street, Market Hill and Park Street will all be retained. What's more - they're also going to clean and repaint the columns! Not only will this mean that the Christmas lights and the Chatteris in Bloom hanging baskets can continue as usual, but it also avoids lots of disruption for cars and pedestrians that would have been caused during the replacement works. I'm going to leave the petition "active" until the various organisations involved have received all of the assurances they require from Balfour Beatty, but this does all look very promising. I'd like to thank the clerk and councillors of the Town Council, the Christmas Lights committee and Chatteris in Bloom - not only for all of their work to put a halt to these unnecessary works, but also for the exceptional effort that they put into making Chatteris a better place for all. Mostly, though, I'd like to thank you all for signing this petition. I do think that the outpouring of support from the townsfolk has helped us to leverage Balfour Beatty more than we would otherwise have been able to. So congratulations. This is your win, too. I'll post again if we get any further updates. All the best, Lawrence