Needham Market Christmas trees still up in July

Christmas trees are still adorning the lamp-posts in a town - seven months after the festivities.

Residents who cast their eyes skywards will see 20 fake trees, complete with lights, along Needham Market's High Street in Suffolk.

Mayor Josephine Lea said the council's storage unit was full, so there was nowhere to put the trees - other than keep them on the lamp-posts.

She said there was even "a suspicion" that a bird was nesting in one of them.

The trees would usually be taken down in January, but although the council disconnected the electricity to the festive lights, its storage unit was being used to house other items.

"We are a small town and we have very little storage space," Mrs Lea said.

She said the town's historical signs had just been refurbished and had to be housed in a protective environment until they could be erected - so they are now taking up the space usually used for the trees.

The town's signs were put up in 1950 at both ends of Needham Market on the B1113.

The trees, which were put up at the end of November, have now been hanging on their lamp-posts for so long, Mrs Lea said there was "a suspicion a bird has nested in one of them".

"But we've not been up to check," she added.

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