MIDDLEWICH residents were left wondering if Christmas had come early to the town after Christmas lights were put up on lamp posts last week.


The council has responded by admitting it is not the most ideal time to erect the illuminations, but says avoiding repeating mistakes of last year were a priority.


Jonathan Williams, town clerk, said: “It is very, very, early but we would rather go early than late.


“It is a very complicated issue and the company we deal with are a national company who have to get round a lot of places all over the country with only so many men and so many vehicles.


“Last year we had some problems with lights being mounted on columns with no sockets, so no chance of them being illuminated, and about a quarter of Wheelock street wasn’t lit up.


“We’ve just signed a new three-year deal with the company, Blachere, and with the problems we had last year they were keen to look after us and make sure we’re sorted early.


“Ideally it would be in the middle of November when we put the lights up but the company is working hard to improve on last year.”


The Christmas lights switch-on is set for Saturday, November 29, and some people have shown their displeasure at changing the Friday switch-on tradition.


Jonathan added: “There has been some criticism about changing the date but we thought with the new deal we’d have a new start and it coincides with the market too.”


“Christmas has massive impact on the town centre economy and we want to do all we can to get people to shop in Middlewich so we have invested a lot on the lights this year and on the tree too, which was really good last year.”