Leicester's festive tree labelled a "disgrace"
A city's second attempt to decorate its Christmas tree has faced new ridicule.
Last week people criticised Leicester's "half-finished" tree, which the city council explained had struggled with "heavy tinsel". The new version, revealed on Thursday's switch on, has been mocked as "a disgrace" and "an absolute joke". Officials said they had received "excellent feedback" but said "sadly it seems you can't please everyone". Problems began when the first tree, in city centre, appeared to have been left with only the top decorated. The council said the tinsel it had ordered was "actually really thick" and had bent the tree's branches. Thursday night's switch-on ceremony was attended by an estimated 20,000 people, who saw the tree had been strung with lights. The multi-coloured lights were concentrated on the top of the tree, with any formal pattern being avoided. Several people took to Twitter to criticise the new design and a video of the switch-on posted on BBC Leicester's Facebook page prompted many derisory comments. Andy Betts said: "The tree looks like the lights have just been dumped on it". "That tree is a disgrace," Leanne Graham said in her comment while Rachael Betts said the tree was "an absolute joke". Lisa Vickers' view was: "It looks like someone has attacked it with 100 tins of silly string". Linda Smallman Varney commented: "It's embarrassing for Leicester". Kelly Ann Smith called it "a right chuffing mess" and David Hodgson said: "I think I preferred how it looked a couple of weeks ago!." A spokesman for the city council said: "Around 20,000 people enjoyed the switch-on of the Christmas lights in the city centre last night and we had some excellent feedback from the people there. "Sadly it seems you can't please everyone, but we hope that thousands more people enjoy the rest of our Christmas activities, including meeting Santa's real reindeer in Jubilee Square this Saturday, and visiting the fantastic winter food festival at the market on Sunday."