Damage caused by falling Christmas lights in Hailsham

Some Christmas lights commissioned by Hailsham Town Council fell off in the town earlier this month, causing slight damage to the roof rack of a car.

Two strings of lights came off their securings in George Street and the High Street, during bad weather experienced prior to Christmas, thankfully no-one was hurt.

A spokesperson for the town council said there had been no need to call the fire service, though East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service were alerted about the incident.

The spokesperson added: "The town council commissioned a new Christmas lighting scheme for 2011. The scheme uses LEDs that not only improve the appearance of the town, but use a fraction of the electricity of the old scheme and are much lighter with low voltage, and are therefore much safer than the old lighting scheme.

"Each year anchor points are pull-tested for safety before the lights are installed, and in response to the extreme conditions of last Thursday when two festoons came down, additional fixings have been installed to counter the current extreme weather conditions."

The public were not in danger when the lights fell as they are low voltage, he confirmed.