Tree of Joy lights go out due to fault

The feature, which is the tallest light tree in Europe, was switched on last month to highlight the Rotary Club of Guernsey’s campaign to give presents to those in need.

‘Due to an electrical fault which is proving difficult to trace, we are experiencing frequent outages of some of the lights on the Tree of Joy,’ a Rotary Club of Guernsey spokesman said.

‘This has not been helped by the high winds and rain that we have been experiencing of late.’

The club apologised for the problems, but said it was doing everything it could to get the iconic light tree back to its full glory.

‘The good news is, the Tree of Joy gift campaign to provide gifts for deserving children in the island, has been a great success once again this year and we continue to be indebted to the generosity of the people of Guernsey.’

The lights are controlled by the street light system, meaning if there is a problem with a light string, a trip switch blows. Club members then need to check which light string is causing the trip and unplug it.

‘Unfortunately this has to be done through a process of elimination and we cannot control the power,’ the spokesman said.

‘So we unplug one set, put the trip back on and then wait to see what happens.

‘If the lights go out that night, we know we have the wrong set and have to do it again the next night.

‘This means it can take up to 10 days to sort out.’

The club has applied for a new power source on the roundabout, which it will have control over, so any problems in the future can be resolved straight away.

‘Unfortunately we did not have time to get that cable in for this year, but should be done next year and following years,’ he said.

‘In the mean time we are doing our very best to get the lights back on and are working on the site every night.’