A ‘Grinch’ council has sparked fury for ditching its traditional Christmas trees in favour of planting ‘living’ ones and telling locals to decorate them. 

Sixteen trees were planted around Pontypool and the surrounding villages in October and have been fitted with solar-powered lights.  

Pontypool community council made the decision to make the festive trees more sustainable and said they may even run a ‘Best Decorated Community Tree’ competition.

Locals have been told they will need to provide any other decorations, such as tinsel and baubles, but the decision has not gone down well with some with independent councillor Giles Davies saying it goes against the Christmas spirit. 

Pictures of one of the scarcely decorated trees shows broken baubles scattered on the ground. 

While tinsel can be seen dangling off one tilted tree planted on a steep incline.     

Giles Davies, who represents Abersychan on Torfaen borough council, told The Telegraph: ‘It goes against the Christmas spirit. People have been through austerity and the cost of living crisis, and kids and pensioners alike just want a bit of Christmas joy.

‘They are like the Grinch. They have stolen Christmas.’ 

He questioned what steps are in place to address potential problems from residents placing their own decorations on trees.

He said: ‘I don’t want to sound like a Scrooge but my concern is what happens when the decorations blow away?

‘People can call me miserable but it’s not about that, it’s about doing the right thing.’

Cllr Davies said a picture of one tree at a bus terminus showed plastic baubles had been blown off the branches and some had broken.

He added: ‘If you do any research you’ll see that decorations affect wildlife, noise from tinsel can put birds off going to an area and it can be dangerous to dogs and if plastic baubles break it is brittle plastic and that can cause injuries.

‘What happens if a dog or a hedgehog eats the decorations or someone puts glass on there? What monitoring is taking place, I don’t think it’s been thought through.’

Cllr Daves has criticised the move not to provide cut Christmas trees and said the locations of some of the new trees was not ideal and were not an improvement.

Since the trees were planted community groups, including youth groups, have taken part in events to decorate them. 

The council has said the trees will be adorned with solar lighting but Pontypool Community Council leader Councillor Gaynor James said she didn’t want to respond to comments made by Cllr Davies.