TINTAGEL could be without Christmas lights this year, if the committee cannot find an electrician to help.

The sad news came about after the electrician that normally lights up the village in the run up to the Christmas period told the Tintagel Christmas Lights committee that he would be unable to carry out the work for 2017, due to his busy schedule with his own business.

The committee, founded 13 years ago by Elaine Flew, started with three members, and now has two to undertake the organisation of the event and lights. Elaine told the Post: “We have no electrician, which means no lights. The person who has done it for so many years is very, very busy, so cannot do the work, and there’s no one in Tintagel who is willing to do it!”

She explained that the electrician is paid to do the work, which many people, apparently, are very surprised to hear.

Elaine added: “Thirteen years ago, there was three of us that did all the organisation of the lights, which I was the founding member of. There’s two of us now, so you can imagine what I’m feeling, after all this time and with no lights.”

The committee managed to raise £7,000 in the first year of their establishment, and have added to that amount ever since. This year, volunteers and money are certainly not an issue, but the committee is urging an electrician to come forward to help with the lights, helping to bring a festive glimmer to Tintagel.

“I’ve got everything else organised — the trees and the band — but we just haven’t got anyone to do the lights,” Elaine continued.

“We were lucky last year, because a local builder, David Hemmings, donated his workforce to work the cherry picker, all free of charge. The council are the ones paying for putting up the lights, and the cherry picker is not a problem. It’s having no electrician that’s the problem.”

Elaine has broadcast Tintagel’s desperate need for an electrician through various media platforms and local newsletters. At first, the only feedback received was a hoax phone call.

Elaine said having lights in the village was important: “It’s very, very, very important. Some people don’t want it, but the majority of people will want it — the children will want to see it. Some people have moaned, but that’s just them trying to be nasty.”

The switch-on of Tintagel’s Christmas lights is a thriving community event, bringing the whole village together. Starting at the council car park at 6.30pm, the congregation parades through the village, with services taking place at the parish, central and Catholic churches, with Father Christmas following behind on his sleigh.

Elaine added: “It’s a big event for Tintagel. We have two big trees in the village, and that with all the lights really lights Tintagel up.”

However, Elaine has had to put things on hold, with no real certainty on the event without an electrician.

She said: “There’s no point in me buying any more lights when we don’t even have anyone at the moment to work with them. It’s very sad. It’s got to the point where it would be a sad day for Tintagel if there are no lights. The older people like to see it, and the children like to see it. I’m just hoping and hoping that someone will come forward and help us.”

The Christmas lights switch-on event is due to take place on Saturday, December 2. Elaine explained that the lights have to be in place at least a week before the event; they have to be tested and it also takes a couple of days to put them up.

She said: “If it’s good weather, then you can easily put them up in a day or so, with no problems whatsoever. But if it’s raining, like the weather we have been getting recently, then it can take a long time. It’s the third week in November that we’ve got to be putting them up, so it’s all come as a bombshell, really.”

Elaine has recently met someone who is helping with the festivities.

With filming taking place recently in Tintagel for Twentieth Century Fox’s The Kid Who Would Be King, Elaine, when taking a look at the film set, met a gentleman at the edge of the car park called Kelvin.

There was a string of bunting being used by the crew, which drew Elaine’s attention. She asked Kelvin if she could use the bunting for the Christmas lights event when they had finished using it, to which he went to his van and came back explaining that he had had a box of several bunting but that ‘someone had pinched it’.

Kelvin told Elaine that he had come from Newquay, and that perhaps he could help.

She told the Post: “It was a stroke of luck. I was telling him about the Christmas lights, and he said that he does the lights for Newquay. He told me that, what he’ll do, is come up from Newquay to put up our Christmas lights with his cherry picker, free of charge. There are some people in the world who donate their time to the community.”

With the committee having raised a lot of money throughout the year during events, as well as a generous donation of £1,000 from the Tintagel Hotel, Elaine said that, equally, they will be ‘spending quite a lot of money again this year’ on buying new lights.

However, she added: “There’ll be no point in buying any more if we can’t get an electrician — they’re so expensive. It costs around £60 or £70 for the lights just around the poles in the village. We also have a roundabout up here with some net. Some of the bulbs went on that last year, and people think you can just replace a few of them, when you’ve actually got to buy a whole new string of them! It really does cost a lot of money.”

Elaine added: “You try and do your best, and then something like this happens. You’ve just got to think positive and hope that something will come of it.”

If anyone can lend a hand, or knows an electrician that can carry out the required work, contact Elaine on 01840 770 345 for more details.

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