Rochester Christmas Market, the Dickensian Christmas Festival, and Christmas lights switch-on events around Medway have been cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Medway Council has today announced it has taken the difficult decision not to hold the events, stating that it would be difficult to enforce social distancing due to their nature and popularity.

However, the council adds that "in the true spirit of Christmas, festive lights will be on display across Medway for residents and visitors to enjoy when they visit Medway’s five town centres to do their Christmas shopping."

Leader of Medway Council, Cllr Alan Jarrett, said: “Although we understand that this news may be disappointing, the health and wellbeing of our residents, visitors and staff is our highest priority and we must do all we can to ensure our COVID-19 rate remains low.

"An awful lot of time and planning goes into organising our Christmas events and, as we do not know what the government advice will be on mass gatherings in November and December, we have made the difficult decision not to hold them this year.

“We have all been affected by the ongoing pandemic and it has been truly heart-warming to see our residents coming together to help each other in these challenging times. We must all continue to play our part and stop the virus from spreading.”

Cllr Jarrett added: “Even though the usual festivities will not be held it will begin to look a lot like Christmas in November as festive lights across Medway will be switched on for residents to enjoy when they visit Medway’s town centres. I would encourage residents to continue supporting our town centres and helping Medway’s economy grow once again. It’s really important we get behind local businesses and shop in Medway.

"To paraphrase Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, we will honour Christmas in all our hearts, and try to keep it all the year.”

This is the second council to announce it will not hold its switch on after Faversham cancelled its event last week.

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