The market town of March might be 1,000 miles from the Leaning Tower of Pisa - but the Cambridgeshire parish is forging inadvertent links following the surprise appearance of its “wonky” Christmas tree.
Councillors are even joking that tourists may want to visit the town’s new lopsided attraction - which cost more than £3,000 - rather than jetting out to Italy.
The leaning tree has split the town, with some calling it “embarrassing” and “ridiculous”, while others are seeing the funny side, even claiming it could generate extra publicity ahead of the lights turn-on event on Friday night.
The March Town Council Christmas lights working party decided to buy the 30ft tree from a nearby estate in Norfolk for £3,636, with a contractor working on a town regeneration scheme donating £2,000 to the cost.
The minutes from the group’s October meeting also show members opted to use a local tree surgeon to install and remove the tree at a “much-reduced cost” to last year.
Whether it was the fault of the tree, or the installation, it’s unclear, but there’s no doubt it’s the talk of the town, with the working party taking to Facebook to respond to some of the criticism.
Councillor Stephen Court sees the funny side of the ‘wonky tree’ - and thinks it could attract more tourists to the town— (Stephen Court)
“The tree has been delivered to the March market place and response on social media appears to be mixed,” posted the group, which accepted that the quality of the tree ordered earlier this year “is not what we expected”.
In another post responding to a complaint, it said: “I’ve spoken to a member of the team who erected the tree and have been advised that the tree is as straight as it’s going to be, only other option would be replace the tree (which we cannot afford to do) also switch on night is tomorrow [24 November] so we don’t have the time to replace the tree either.”
The tree has been compared to the Leaning Tower of Pisa— (AFP/Getty Images)
Town councillor Stephen Court, who is also on the working party, told the The Independent that in 50 years as resident of March he’d never seen a wonky Christmas tree installed in the town.
But asked if it was worth the cost, he said: “It has created alot of publicity for the town and the lights turn-on, so it’s value for money. I thought we might get a mention in the local news, but I’m see us all over the national press.”
He added: “I look at it and I can see the links people are making to the Leaning Tower of Pisa. You never know, we might just get some tourists choosing to coming to our town for the tree instead of seeing the real thing.”
Resident Kimberley Williams agreed. She told the BBC: “The Italians have got the Leaning Tower of Pisa - March has now got the leaning tree of Christmas.”
