Christmas has well and truly arrived in Bexley with a flurry of festive lights getting the big switch-on ...

ERITH'S new Riverside shopping centre celebrated its first Christmas in the town with traditional and modern entertainment.

There was hip-hop and street dance from Mystikal and Rhema Dance, street theatre and music with Bohemian Events and the Bureau of Silly Ideas performed juggling and acrobatics for shoppers.

Erith Rotary Club brought Father Christmas and his sleigh and Greenwich and Bexley Hospice had a variety of seasonal stalls.

All the activities led up to the switching on of the lights by Bexley's mayor Councillor John Shepheard and the Christmas tree lights by the Erith Christ Church choir.

In Blackfen, Premier Autocentres buried its differences with Bexley Council to stump up the £1,550 needed for the shopping centre's Christmas lights.

After financing them for the past three years, arguments with the council over the cost of refuse collection, parking its cars in the street and a planning application led the company to announce to the Blackfen Forum it would not pay this year.

But when the company heard the three ward councillors were intending to use their own cash, it had a change of heart.

One of the councillors, Brian Beckwith joined with forum secretary George Murrell and Mike Rudd from the company for the big switch on.

A canon and hot wine greeted the illumination of the Oval shopping parade in Sidcup.

Old Bexley and Sidcup MP Derek Conway switched on the traders' Christmas lights by pressing an electronic button which "fired" a canon and brought the lights to life.

The traders finance the lights themselves as well as supporting Greenwich and Bexley Cottage Hospice.

With the lights now on, Father Christmas may put in an appearance this Saturday with children from Days Lane Primary School and the Bexley Centre for Music and Dance who will be singing from 10.45am to noon.