County’s firefighters cancel charity sleigh tours due to Covid but plan Santa Dash instead

But today (Wednesday) Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue has reluctantly taken the decision to cancel the Santa Sleigh collections for this year.

The decision came after Lincolnshire came out of lockdown into Tier 3, which aims to restrict the spread of Covid-19.

The organisers are particularly concerned that Fire and Rescue teams would not be able to ensure the safety of staff and the public during these events, with appropriate social distancing and handling collections going door to door.

Lincolnshire’s Chief Fire Officer, Mark Baxter, said: “We’re so disappointed that we can’t run our Santa Sleigh tours this year. We know how incredibly popular they are with many people turning out in large groups to see them, and they raise money for such an important cause.

“However, as a fire service, we live and breathe safety and we don’t want to run any events that may put any members of our communities at risk, or even Father Christmas himself. We promise that we will do everything we can to run these next Christmas – better than ever.”

Many of Lincolnshire’s stations are instead doing a ‘Santa Dash’ on Sunday December 13, where firefighters will be running in their areas in festive clothing to spread Christmas cheer and raise money for the Firefighters charity.

If you would like to donate, visit the firefighters charity website.

If you’d like to take part in a virtual Santa Dash for the Firefighters Charity, you can also visit https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/fire-family-virtual-santa-dash-2020-tickets-121331621145