Festive decorations are still hanging in the High Street eight months after twelfth night.

They have been left up because the town centre management company in charge of the lights moved offices after a dispute with Dover Town Council.

Their new premises did not have enough room to store the decorations so instead they were never taken down.

'Waste of time'

Now the dispute has been settled and the council has found enough money to switch the lights back on in the autumn.

David Lloyd, the council's Christmas lights sub committee chairman, said: "We are going to have brand new Christmas lights this year which will incorporate the old ones.

"But part of our brief from our committee is to also ensure that all the lights including the ones that have been up all this year will be taken down in the New Year and stored.

"Come October they will be going up so it is a complete waste of time and money to take them down now."

But town centre manager, Mike Webb, said that the lights could be looked at in a different way as advertisements for the town's carnival.

The lights will be switched on again at a ceremony on 26 November.