A BUSINESSMAN responsible for creating a banner which criticised a council for their choice of Christmas lights has spoken out.

Matthew Taylor, 37, admitted to putting up a banner in Clitheroe town centre last week in retaliation to the ‘obnoxious’ Christmas decorations and lights that had been put up by the town council.

In particular his banner refereed to a lighted sign placed on Castlegate which read ‘Merry Christmas from Clitheroe Town Council’.

This, argues Mr Taylor, is the council’s ‘obnoxious’ way of giving themselves ‘a pat on the back’ for carrying out their work.

He said: “Seeing the sign angered me. It made me think about the message the council was trying to portray and to me, it was very much one of ‘look at us and what a good job we are doing’.

“The reality of it is that our council tax pays for a job to be done. The sign should be something to and from all of the people in the town - not just the council.

“I was triggered to do something after I heard others talking about how distasteful the sign was and I realised I wasn’t the only one who had an opinion on the matter.”

Inspired to take action, Mr Taylor, who owns The Time Train curiosity shop in Clitheroe, ordered two custom-made banners - one of which he placed next to the sign outside the Santander bank.

He said: “It got taken down a number of days later, but by then so many people had seen it and it has really caused quite the stir in the town.

“All it said was what the council meant to say in the first place - Merry Christmas from the PEOPLE of Clitheroe.

“I’ve grown up in this town and am passionate about Clitheroe, I want to see decorations that represent everyone in the town, not just the council.”

Speaking about the stunt, town councillor Mary Robinson defended the decorations and explained that a lot of hard work went into making the town centre look festive.

She said: “Months of organisation goes into the decorations. We on the town council are volunteers and a lot of pride goes into the work that we do. We only get a very small percentage of people’s council tax and we use it for things like the decorations and put it back into the community.

“I would welcome anybody living in the town to come to the next town council meeting if they would like to have a say on local matters.”