Shorn of its lower branches, Surbiton’s Christmas tree creates a curiously Alpine mood on the roundabout outside the station.

Workmen lopped off the lower branches of the bushy seasonal specimen on Monday… then presumably knocked off for a languid lunch at the Coronation, leaving the town’s arboreal totem looking more like something David Attenborough would hide behind.

Perhaps it’s time to bite the bullet, and actually plant a year-round fir tree on the roundabout, so lights can simply be added every December.

It would make a greener alternative to the dull mound of fenced-off nothingness which exists for 11 months of the year.