A woman has spoken of how she was told to remove her Christmas lights
by a housing association worker - in case they offended her non-Christian
neighbours.
Dorothy Glenn decorates her home in South Shields with hundreds of festive
lights every year, including a giant tree and a 4ft Santa Claus.
But she was left stunned this year when a South Tyneside Homes worker
called at her house to inform her that the decorations she was displaying
might be offending her neighbours.
The association last night apologised to Mrs Glenn and insisted that
removing Christmas lights was not part of their policy.
(ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW)
The 41-year-old mother-of-three said: 'I put the lights up in the first
week of November and then recently a uniformed housing worker was outside,
and it looked like he was counting my decorations.
'When I went outside he said that the lights were "offensive to
the community". If I was offending anyone I could understand why
he was telling me, but nobody has complained.
'My neighbours are Bengali and Chinese and I know that they love the
lights - the children will always point them out when they walk past.'
