THE City of Greater Bendigo council has acted swiftly, for the short-term at least, to ensure one of the city’s most popular Christmas traditions will be a feature of the festive season this year.
In July, the Bendigo Weekly revealed the Bendigo Lions Club had been forced to stop its annual lighting up of the large pine tree next to the RSL in Pall Mall.
The club cited occupational health and safety, and technical concerns as the reasons for dropping the project for the first time since 1976. Council City Futures director Stan Liacos said the council thought the tree was too important to sit idle at the most important time of the year.
“We are in the process of stringing 1000 tiny LED lights up to the tree,” he said.
“We thought it was too good a community initiative not to have it again this year.”
The council will look at a more permanent solution to the problem in time for next Christmas.