The council’s community wellbeing director Jaime Carroll admitted to this week’s council meeting the previous decorations were “looking a bit old and tattered”.

They have been replaced with a new tree at the Ovens Riverside Square – described by one person at the meeting as “spectacular” – and a large “wish” sign in Reid Street.

“We also have Christmas banners that are to go up on the light poles throughout the CBD, unfortunately there has been a bit of a hold-up with one of the components … they will be installed on Thursday,” Ms Carroll said.

She defended the decision to place the tree away from Wangaratta’s shopping precinct after resident Brian Fox criticised the council for missing a chance to give shoppers “a warm and comfy feeling” from decorations.

“We wanted it to be somewhere that was safe (to take photos) and wasn’t going to be a distraction for traffic, that wasn’t going to block local businesses, given the size of it,” she said.

“We want to build on the activation of the riverside square and really start to use that as a key community activation square.”

The debate comes as the Wodonga Council was criticised by the city’s ratepayers association president for failing to have more decorations festooned around the High Street shopping strip and Junction Place.

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