AS East Lancashire finally emerges into spring after a very long, cold winter, the idea of a street party on a warm day does sound particularly appealing.

In fact, you don’t even have to be a particularly ardent royalist to welcome the notion of such an outdoor celebration.

With just over a month to go before the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, the race is already on to organise festivities across the area.

The boroughs of Hyndburn and Ribble Valley lead the patriotic field in East Lancashire with 20 applications for street parties already lodged.

As MP Nigel Evans says, it will be the first opportunity for many communities to come together in this way since the parties which celebrated the new Millennium eleven years ago.

Whatever you may think of the importance of the occasion, it is a great excuse to temporarily forget our country’s economic woes and step out to chat with neighbours of all ages as well as getting to know people you may only have nodded to in the street until now.