It’s not been a good start for one town’s Christmas decorations.

Newhaven residents were surprised to see Christmas lights flashing near the town centre on Monday night, and then on Tuesday morning they saw their newly installed decorations ripped down by a lost lorry driver in the high street.

One driver, who saw the premature illuminations at the junction of Lewes Road and the A259 Newhaven ring road, said: “I couldn’t believe, Christmas lights in October, it’s not even been Halloween yet.”

Susie Mullins, head of strategic development at Newhaven Town Council, suggested that the lights may have been being tested, and went on to describe Tuesday’s incident, when a lorry driver tore down some of the decorations.

She said: “A lorry drove up the pedestrianised part of the High Street and tore up our Christmas lights which we had only put up over the weekend.”

“There’s lots of people in the town trying really hard, and new shops opening in the town, so it’s frustrating because someone was not doing what they were supposed to.”

She added: “The lights are really amazing, they were specially designed last year to link to different parts of Newhaven, but now we will have to start again unfortunately.

“We have sent our caretaker to the High Street to make sure everything is as safe as possible, as that is our first priority.”

The event was seen by shop-owners and employees along the street.

Mia Edgar, who works at Newhaven Cabs on the High Street, said: “A lorry pulled the lights off the trees.

“A young man got out and tried to untangle them from the lorry but ended up just snapping them off.

“He tried to reverse back out of the street and took the ones in the tree outside our shop down, then drove off with Christmas lights still hanging off the lorry.”

Another witness from Toppers Hair Salon, also on the High Street, said: “It happened yesterday morning, around 10 O’clock. The trees with the lights in were overhanging the street and the lorry was too tall for the street, so as it drove along it was cutting them down.”

They also revealed that it was a common problem.

“A lot of lorries do come up this street, particularly when they’re delivering things, and I don’t think there’s any signs to say they can’t.”