Toowoomba council defends public Christmas displays after union, business owners slam ‘lack of spirit’

Residents and business owners believe the Toowoomba CBD “lacked Christmas spirit” in 2023, and union officials claim this was due to a lack of council workers.

A perceived lack of Christmas lights and other decorations in public spaces across Toowoomba during the festive season is due to a shortage of council workers, including electricians.

That’s according to the Electrical Trades Union, which has ramped up its critiques of the Toowoomba Regional Council in a bid to improve temporary allowances for the organisation’s already-depleted electrical division.

Residents in recent weeks had frequently commented throughout the Christmas period about a lack of public installations by the council.

Toowoomba City Hall lit up for Christmas in the CBD in 2019. Picture: Nev Madsen.

Small business owner Ben Apsey, who is on the Toowoomba Chamber’s CBD Revitalisation Advisory Committee, felt the city centre had a “lack of Christmas spirit”.

“From council’s involvement, they may as well have not done anything — aside from Grand Central and City Hall, there really wasn’t anything,” he said.

“There was a real lack of Christmas spirit — it was really sad.”

While the council did not refute the allegation, councillor James O’Shea said 2023’s installations were “consistent” with recent years.

ETU Toowoomba and southwest organiser Damian Hewat, who said last year council’s electrical trade stocks were at “crisis levels”, believed the lack of skilled staff had impacted the amount of Christmas lights installed by the council in December.

“One of the things noticed is some of the normal situations like Christmas lighting, they didn’t have the staff to install the lighting (in December) — if something as small of that can’t be met, there are concerns about other aspects,” he said.

“It’s due to the fact they’ve lost that many staff — (Public decorations) mean a lot to a lot of people.”

Cr James O'Shea. Picture: Kevin Farmer

Mr O’Shea said public festive lighting had been installed with the help of community groups.

“Toowoomba Regional Council installed the regular City Hall Christmas lights display and decorations with the generous assistance of the Lions Club of Toowoomba West and council

staff,” he said.

“The installations were consistent with recent years.

“In addition, council supported the Lions Club of Toowoomba West with their annual Toowoomba Christmas Wonderland display at the Queens Park Botanic Gardens.

“Council also started a progressive rollout of feature lighting, including street tree lighting, across the Toowoomba CBD.

“This display will continue to be extended and will be a permanent installation.”

The comments come ahead of new enterprise bargaining agreement negotiations for outdoor council staff, which are set to begin later this year.

Mr Hewat reaffirmed his call for the council to extend its recently-offered temporary allowance for certain levels of tradespeople to all electrical staff.

Electrical Trades Union Toowoomba organiser Dan McGaw is calling on the Toowoomba Regional Council to pay its blue collar staff more.

He said council electricians were responsible for some of the region’s most vital infrastructure, including water and sewerage pumps as well as traffic lights.

It was revealed in November 75 per cent of the council’s sparkies had either left or were looking to leave.

Since then, council’s acting chief executive Nick Hauser said a number of vacancies had been filled.

“Council is aware of the competitive market for trades, including a national shortage of electricians,” he said.

“Council currently has four electrical trade vacancies, however one of these positions has a new employee starting this month.

“Council is considering further avenues available within budgetary constraints for the attraction and retention of staff.”

Originally published as Toowoomba council defends public Christmas displays after union, business owners slam ‘lack of spirit’