Oxford City Council leader Bob Price tonight said Lord Mayor Susanna Pressel would be turning on Oxford’s Christmas lights.

The city council originally said there was going to be no Christmas lights switch-on event, which in previous years has been carried out by a celebrity or the Lord Mayor.

A city council spokesman was asked last week if any celebrities had been approached, or if it was planned that the Lord Mayor would switch on the lights again, and she said: “There is no switch-on ceremony this year.

“The lights will come on by the start of the WinterLight event in Bonn Square at 5pm on Friday, November 28.”

WinterLight is being run by Oxford Inspires and is a series of events across the county during winter which the organisation and the city said it wanted to be inclusive of all denominations.

It is separate to the city’s Christmas lights switch-on, said Mr Price, but is happening on the same night.

After the Oxford Mail reported there would not be an official switch-on and the word Christmas would not be included in any light display, according to the council statements, Mr Price said Ms Pressel would be turning on the lights.

He said: “The switch-on will take place in the context of opening Bonn Square.

“The Lord Mayor is doing it.”

He said this was not a change in plan following the Mail story but did not know why the council spokesman had said there was no switch-on when asked if the Mayor was doing it.

He said it had been planned for the Mayor to switch on the lights for “a long time”.

He added: “We have not changed our approach to the Christmas lights.”

Ms Pressel appeared unsure what her exact role was at the event, which marks the completion of the square’s redevelopment.

She said: “I am not quite clear. I thought I was just opening Bonn Square.

“I am not sure it is switching on the Christmas lights.”

Told of Mr Price’s comments, she added: “That’s fine then, but it’s much more than just turning on the Christmas lights.”

Both Mr Price and Sarah Maxfield, chief executive of Oxford Inspires, said they were not banning the word Christmas.

Mr Price said: “On the contrary, the council will be celebrating Christmas 2008 in the same way it has celebrated all previous Christmases.

“We will have Christmas trees in the Town Hall and in Broad Street, the Lord Mayor will host a Christmas reception for community workers and will hold the annual Christmas Carols event, and we will be sending out Christmas cards.

“For Christmas 2008, Oxford Inspires agreed with the city council to time the WinterLight event for November and to have it on the same evening as the switch-on of the city centre Christmas lights and the reopening of Bonn Square.”

Ms Maxfield said as part of the two-month long WinterLight festival there were 14 events using the word Christmas.

She said: WinterLight Festival 2008 will celebrate Christmas events across Oxfordshire.”

Sean Qualter, 38, from Birchfield Close in Blackbird Leys, Oxford, set up a campaign on the Facebook Internet site over the controversy.

He said before Mr Price’s announcement: “I hope they change it. It is traditional to have a countdown by the tree with the lights coming on. Why change what they have always done?”