Christmas lights go up as temperatures soar

Whilst most towns in England are enjoying the Indian summer, one town in Lancashire are putting up Christmas lights ready for winter.

As temperatures in Heywood, Lancashire, hit 24C, local residents looked on in disbelief. As Santas and snowmen lights were put up along the high street, shoppers wore sunglasses and licked ice-creams.

When asked about the incongruous festive arrangements, Rochdale Council, who are responsible for putting the lights up so early, denied trying to get into the Christmas spirit ahead of time.

Council boss John Patterson asserted that the measures being taken to put up the Christmas lights so early, were being pursued as a way of saving money rather than spreading festive cheer.

The council says that as they have to replace street lighting at the moment, putting up the Christmas lights at the same time saves their team time and money.

As Mr Patterson told the Mirror newspaper: “It takes around eight weeks to install the lights across the borough, and starting the installation any later requires additional street lighting engineers which would increase the cost.”

Although the lights may be up this weekend, the sunbathing residents of Heywood will have to wait until November 29th for the big switch-on, which should give enough time for their tans to be replaced with some better timed festive cheer.