January 12, 2001 9:46: IT IS official. Christmas in Beckenham is over, but rather than signalling the start of a bright new year, it could be the beginning of a long spell of bad luck.

Last week, the lights which adorned lamp posts along the High Street over the festive period were taken down - four days late.

Legend has it, all Christmas decoration must be taken down by Twelth night, January 6, to avoid bringing bad luck.

Keith Miller and John Patmore, directors of Bexley-based Festive Decorations, put up and took down all the town centres decoration.

They were not worried about bringing bad luck upon themselves or the town.

Mr Pathmore said: "It doesnt make any difference to me. When people say to us it is bad luck to leave decorations up past Twelth night, I just ignore them. The only bad luck weve had was to be rescued by the fire brigade because our hydraulic hoist got stuck.

"We go all round the country taking down decoration. Even if we had 10 lorries, we couldnt get it all down in time."

Father Peter Marr of St Barnabas Church, Beckenham, gave no credence to the Twelth night tradition.

He said: "As a Christian, notions of bad luck should not come into our thinking."

Anil Dawar

9:30am Friday 12th January 2001

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