Staff at a charity shop got a fright this afternoon when their shopfront sign came down in high winds.
The pavement outside Age UK in London Road was blocked for about an hour after the sign broke at about 11.25am this morning.
Half the sign fell into the road, and firefighters used an appliance with a tower to remove the other half.
The shop’s assistant manager Paula Bean said: “The winds took it down. Somebody came and pointed it out to us and as we came back into the shop to call 999 the rest of the sign came down.
“It was quite frightening.
“There were a few people gathered round having a look, and the pavement was blocked while firefighters made sure everything was safe.”
“We’ve got somebody coming round this afternoon to put up a replacement sign.”
Are you sure it was the “high winds” that brought it down, and not that it was a rusty neglected piece of tat that the owners had failed to do any routine maintenance on for years?