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The Christmas lights in a West Yorkshire village are set to shine even more brightly this year thanks to new funding from one of the UK’s leading onshore renewable energy firms.
Aberford & District Parish Council organises, with assistance from Aberford Community Lights, an annual switch on event which brings the whole village together to celebrate the start of the festive season and takes place this year from 4pm on Saturday 23 November.
As well as the lights on the village Christmas tree, the display features a series of motifs that are fixed onto lampposts around the village green and strings of festive lights in the surrounding trees which create a spectacle that covers the whole village centre.
The Parish Council is now using a £3,000 grant from the community benefits fund linked to OnPath Energy’s nearby Hook Moor Wind Farm to increase the number of different motifs it can install, with up to 15 separate displays now set to be put on show.
As well as a traditional countdown to the big switch on and a subsequent fireworks display, Aberford Community Lights also organises a series of market stalls, face painting, a kids Christmas party and a live performance from the Collingham Brass Band.
More live music, as well as refreshments, will be available in Aberford Village Hall, while Santa will be arriving on his sleigh just before the lights begin to shine.
Fundraising events are held in the village through the year to help cover the cost of putting on the Christmas display.
Our volunteer team is already well on with preparations for this year’s event, and as the nights get longer, the excitement’s really beginning to build.
Barry Riley, clerk to Aberford & District Parish Council, says: “Our annual switch on is a fantastic event organised by a number of community groups where we close the roads and get everyone in the village together to share their excitement at Christmas being just around the corner.
“We also get lots of people coming into the village from elsewhere to take part in the event, and we know that it is inspiring other local village to see what sort of Christmas displays they might put on in their own communities.
“Our volunteer team is already well on with preparations for this year’s event, and as the nights get longer, the excitement’s really beginning to build.
“Our Christmas lights are really important to the people that live here, but it’s also expensive to put on, especially at a time where everyone’s budgets are really stretched.
“The support that OnPath Energy has provided will make a real difference to the quality and size of the display that we can mount and the joy it will bring to our community, and we’re already looking forward to the big switch on.”
OnPath Energy (formerly Banks Renewables) owns and operates the Hook Moor Wind Farm, which sits close to the A1/M1 junction and which, in its last financial year, generated enough renewable energy to meet the annual energy requirements of around 7,000 homes.
It is also behind the nearby Barnsdale Solar Energy Park, which will be able to generate enough electricity to meet the annual requirements of up to 13,000 family homes once the development work which has just begun on site is complete.
Robin Winstanley, sustainability and community director at OnPath Energy, adds: “This is a heartwarming community event that really brings out the Christmas spirit in everyone in Aberford, and we’re very happy to be helping enhance the organisers’ plans for this year.”
Environmental and community projects in the vicinity of the Hook Moor Wind Farm which are interested in applying to itscommunity fund should first contact the fund manager via apply@onpathcommunityfund.co.uk or on 0191 378 6342 to confirm that their group or project is eligible.
