MILK FLOAT - CHRISTMAS SLEIGH PROJECT

With the increasing difficulty of getting volunteers to tow the Christmas Sleigh, the idea of replacing it with a Milk Float has been generally thought about for the past couple of years.

The towing problem was highlighted again last Christmas when, despite reducing the number of nights again, to 10 (previously 14 in 2023, 16 in 2022), we were let down at the last minute by potential volunteer tow-drivers. In Bromley, we average about £1,000 each night in collected donations, so the number of nights out does have a significant effect on our ability to raise funds for supported charities, as well as impacting the number of families/children enjoying the spectacle.

Despite many attempts to try to find a reliable source of other drivers, we have failed to arrive at a sustainable solution. We are not alone with this problem – it seems as if many other clubs which operate a towed Christmas Sleigh have similar issues, particularly if they attempt to schedule more than about 6 nights of collecting.

Since January this year, a Working Party have put a considerable amount of time and effort into researching the possibility of producing a new Sleigh based on using an old electric milk float. The theory being that many more people would be willing to volunteer to drive this type of vehicle, thus removing the critical tow-driver constraint.

The initial important part of this research work has now been completed, and we bought our Milk Float in May 2025 - it is a restored 1997 Wales & Edwards 3-wheeled milk float. ex-Unigate (and has been seen in an episode of Midsummers Murder!)

We are now busily turning it into a spectacular Sleigh ready for this year's Christmas Collections.

This is a very early, very basic idea of what it may look like:

It's first outing was to the Bromley Motor Show on Sunday the 6th of July:

The winner of the city map pick was ...

Ticket H7 was the winner!

Won by Fraser from Elmers End (and his mum, Clare)
- they will get a ride in the milk float at a future date.