RICHMOND Round Table members' faces were as red as Rudolph's nose when they discovered their Christmas tree lights were missing just hours before the big switch-on.

The club took delivery of its biggest and best tree yet and installed it at the foot of the Trinity Tower, in the Market Place, for a ceremony last Friday.

But when they got to the storeroom where the festoon lights are kept, they discovered they had disappeared.

A dash to the town's Yorkshire Clothing Company shop netted a haul of rope lights, which were strewn on the tree just in time for the switch-on by the mayor.

But shoppers and residents said it was a poor show compared with previous years.

Round Table member Keith Tate said: "We were horrified when we discovered the lights were missing. We don't know yet whether they have been stolen or someone has borrowed them."

New festoons were hastily ordered in the hope they can be put on to the tree this weekend.