The firm behind a town centre Christmas tree branded "embarrassing" have explained what went wrong.
Rainford's Christmas Trees, a popular source of festive decorations in St Helens, supplied the tree that was erected in Church Square earlier this week. Following a slew of complaints, the tree has now been replaced, with the new centre piece for the town centre described as "bang on".
For the second year in a row, St Helens Council came under fire for its choice of decorations for the town centre, after 2021's tree was described as "shameful". In response to the criticism, the ECHO reached out to Rainford's, who have since provided a huge new tree for Church Square.
READ MORE: Mum 'stressed beyond belief' as dream garden turns into 'absolute mess'
The owner of the family business, Richard Rainford, told the ECHO: "The tree was chosen in the fields by me and it was what we call a graceful tree, as it had long swooping branches, unfortunately it must have got damaged when being harvested and subsequently wrapped up.
"Only when the tree was re-erected and the tree had been allowed to open out, it was clear it wasn’t good, and we we immediately, in agreement with the council, agreed to swap it, but this takes time- in this case 36 hours."
Richard claims the initial response to the first tree was out of proportion, but thanks his customers and the council leaders for their many messages of support. He added: "Unfortunately the trolls jumped on negative comments to try and create a story from nothing, in addition to damaging my reputation.
"Thankfully it was rectified quickly, and I have had over 3000 messages of support, including calls from the council leader and the mayor of St Helens, apologising for the negative comments."
READ NEXT
Man dug ex-girlfriend's grave before he murdered her with axe
Mum 'stressed beyond belief' as dream garden turns into 'absolute mess'
Millions to get more DWP Cost of Living payments and how much you'll get
