A Brighton shopping street enjoyed a belated epiphany with the Christmas lights finally being taken down.
Volunteers swung into action in St James’s Street this morning, taking advantage of the fine weather.
Simon Burgess, chair of the St James’s Area Action Group, Chris Cooke, chair of the St James’s Area Local Action Team, John Carden, a decorator, and resident Ahmed Koyes worked together to remove the lights.
Mr Burgess, the former leader of Brighton and Hove City Council and Labour’s parliamentary candidate in Brighton Kemptown, said: “Unfortunately not enough money was raised locally to pay for the lights to be removed professionally and our appeal for the free loan of a ‘cherry picker’ was ultimately unsuccessful.
“We were waiting until the weather improved as it has been so awful the last few months and we wanted to create as little disruption as possible by doing it on a Sunday.
“I had to overcome my fear of heights, with John and I using a pair of long ladders to get the lights down.
“It was good to have Chris and Ahmed holding the bottoms of the ladders safely and warning pedestrians.
“Sometimes if a job needs doing you just have to do it yourself!”
