Plans for a Christmas in Cardiff have come up short when the council ordered a tree in the wrong size due to a misunderstanding over measurements.
Cardiff City Council believed it had spent £30,000 hiring a 40m-high Christmas tree – or as it described it ‘tree shaped structure’, covered in gold baubles- over a three-year period, from the UK-based firm MK Illuminations.
The firm ships its products from China, which had also meant the structure wasn’t in place for the turning-on of the Christmas lights in the city.
In fact, the local authority had made an error between metric and imperial measurements, and ordered a 40ft high tree.
In footage, this is only a third of the size of the product it thought would be placed outside the city’s castle.
The reason for the 40m height for the original tree was for the structure to be as tall as the clocktower of the castle.
The size of this originally specified tree is surprising though, as such a structure would be taller than the Angel of the North sculpture - and double the height of the Norwegian Spruce Christmas tree in London’s Trafalgar Square.
A spokeswoman for the council saw the funny side though.
She said: 'The person who told us the tree was 40m high has since revealed he believes he is 18ft tall.
'We apologise to everyone who was expecting a bigger tree and are cutting the person responsible down to size.'
The council also stated that the new tree would save the local authority £5,000 a year from ‘previous tree installations’.
The #Christmas Tree has divided opinion, & yes it's not 40m! But it sure looked Christmassy last night! #Cardiff ?? pic.twitter.com/biRbAqLqGu
— City of Cardiff (@cardiffcouncil) 27 November 2016
Photo: @cardiffcouncil
