CHRISTMAS cheer is expected to return to the Bathurst central business district within days.
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In recent years, Christmas decorations have been a hot topic, with debate over the level of cheer in the city and who should be responsible for providing decorations.
Bathurst Regional Council has increased its efforts, having festive banners specially made to hang on the CBD lamp standards and offering ways for the community to get involved.
Mayor Bobby Bourke said that people can expect similar decorations and festivities as to what was seen during December last year.
A large Christmas tree is due to arrive in the coming days and will be erected in Kings Parade.
If council follows the same plans as last year, the tree will be at the William Street end of the park.
The banners and other decorations will also start to go up.
One thing that won't be returning however is the upcycled Christmas trees, which were decorated by school students and placed in Kings Parade last year.
Cr Bourke confirmed that council hadn't arranged for that initiative to continue.
After council came under fire in 2016 about the lack of Christmas cheer in the CBD, Cr Bourke had started the conversation internally about organising decorations.
He also stated that he wanted to see more initiatives that would encourage people to come into the CBD.
Although still passionate about it, the now mayor is leaving the Christmas plans to council's events team.
"I've been leaving it up to the event staff. We will be asking people to put things out in the CBD and come through the area," Cr Bourke said.
He said the feedback on the decorations in previous years has been positive, but there will always be "knockers out there saying council isn't doing enough".
He hopes that people will come out to enjoy the decorations this year, saying that it was important to find some happiness during the drought.
