Chester Elves helping prepare the city centre

Chester's Christmas Elves have been brought in to help a little earlier than usual. ChELFie has been helping prepare the city centre with the first task testing the 80,845 Christmas LED lights.

There are 370m of lights to be installed, with Elf and Safety in mind the Elves were rigged with safety harnesses to oversee the first set of lights being put up last night.

The LED lights have a five year use before replacement, since swapping to LED in 2011 the energy costs have been reduced by over 60 percent compared to the old incandescent lights.

Every year there are questions about why the lights are up in October, the elves have had a look behind the scenes to see how much work is involved as the teams work through the night to make sure there is as little disruption as possible.

The plans have been changed slightly this year due to other events in the city centre. The time table will be:

• Monday, 14 October – Christmas lights installation starts
• Tuesday, 12 November – Christmas Market build starts and delivery of Christmas tree. There will be road closures from 6am as the tree arrives, the roads will be re-open at 7am to allow for deliveries, then closed again at 10.30am.
• Thursday, 14 November – The main Christmas lights including the Ches-STAR will be turned on in time for the Christmas Market.
• Saturday, 16 November – The Christmas Market opens.
• Thursday, 21 November – 12 days of Christmas Parade – spot Santa, fireworks at the Amphitheatre. Late-Night Shopping and extended Park and Ride
• Thursday, 28 November – Lantern Parade Late-Night Shopping and extended Park and Ride
• Sunday, 1 December – Santa dash
• Thursday, 5 December – Winter Watch Parade Late-Night Shopping and extended Park and Ride
• Thursday, 12 December – Winter Watch and Saturnalia Parades Late-Night Shopping and extended Park and Ride
• Monday, 16 December – extended Park and Ride
• Tuesday, 17 December – extended Park and Ride
• Wednesday, 18 December – extended Park and Ride
• Thursday, 19 December – Late-Night Shopping and extended Park and Ride
• Friday, 20 December – extended Park and Ride
• Sunday, 22 December – Last Day of Christmas Market
• Monday, 23 December – Christmas Market comes down