The reality of this season of goodwill often fails to match the expectation, but here instead is a minor cause for festive optimism.
We first featured news of a bright new future for the police box on Broughton Road in December 2015.
Local resident Yosef Mazon was successfully seeking planning permission to convert the redundant structure into a takeaway coffee and food outlet.
Sandwiched between hypothermic Broughton Primary School parents on one side, and soon-to-arrive ravenous builders on the other, Mr Mazon looks well placed to make a small fortune. However, progress till now has proved slow.
Not surprisingly, then, Mr Mazon was proud when a smart exterior refurbishment of the box was completed earlier this summer.
So proud, in fact, that he appealed to local youngsters not to ruin it.
Remarkably, some six months later, Mr Mazon’s appeal to better nature has been successful. Unlike almost every other building, cabinet or protruberance that rises above ground level in the area, there is (or at least there was this morning) not a mark on it.
Long may this unblemished state continue. Soon may the police box open for business.
