Christmas is just around the corner and for cherry picker hirers and operators that means there is a sudden run on their product. Most people will think of a cherry picker as something that is used on building works and by electricians up and down the country, however its use comes in handy once a year all over the UK with Christmas light displays going up. In this post we take a look at the different types of call outs a cherry picker can be used at in the run up to the festive period.
Large Christmas Light Displays
The famous lights of Oxford Street in London, a festive lighting treat that runs from the 1st November through until January and launched with much fanfare. The 2015 festive display comprises of 1778 snowball-esque decorations, with over 750,000 LED lights illuminating them at night. Oxford Street may be the most famous Christmas light display in the UK but it is in fact one of four major displays in central London � the others being Regent Street, Carnaby Street and Duke of York Square. This is then repeated up and down the country with every major city having large-scale festive displays in major shopping areas.
As well as the impressive lighting displays across roads and streets there are also other festive displays, such as the huge Norwegian Spruce Christmas Tree that is erected in Trafalgar Square each year. At a height of more than 20 metres the tree, gifted from the City of Oslo to the people of Britain, takes quite an effort to put up and decorate. The Trafalgar Square Christmas tree is always decorated in a traditional Norwegian style with 500 white lights adorning its branches. For both of these displays a cherry picker is essential to place the lights in the correct position whilst keeping the installers safe.
Town and Village Christmas Lights
Christmas Displays are not limited to big cities, however, with lights appearing across the length and breadth of the British countryside. An interesting trend with regard to local light displays is how the use of crowdfunding campaigns are growing in popularity. These funding campaigns see the local people taking ownership of the displays and ensure that their town or village is able to continue the annual tradition of having festive lights. For many smaller communities the lights are installed to bring the festive spirit to residents and visitors and give a sense of pride within them.
Private Displays
Outside of the commercial world of large scale lighting displays there are some people that take decorating their properties to a whole new level. Seeing individual Santa Claus shaped led strips or flashing fairy lights has become common place throughout the UK with a large proportion of the population having small scale lighting displays during the festive period. There is a small group of people that are not content with this style of display and they take it upon themselves to create incredible winter wonderlands on the front of their home and in their front garden.
Some of these displays rival even the best commercial displays and require months of planning and quite a large investment. A number of these private displays are used to promote charities and raise money for good causes, combining a visually stunning festive display with a purpose.
For a lot of these large scale displays the unsung heroes are those that install them, often working nights when the roads can be closed and there is access for the cherry pickers. People work year round to create these amazing displays that are only displayed for a short period of time and for companies that provide high access machinery there is a lot of work crammed into this small window of time.
Article provided by MC Property Maintenance, a high access rental and property maintenance firm based in Surrey for over 10 years.