IT’S hard to believe that I have only ever attended three street parties in my lifetime.

While one of our writers suggested one of them might have been the Coronation in 1952 – a guess immediately recognised by his colleagues as one of the worst career moves this century – I was around to enjoy shindigs at the Silver Jubilee in 1977, Charles and Diana’s wedding in 1981 and a fairly hazy New Year’s Eve at the end of the Millennium.

In truth, street parties are strange events, especially in the slightly more reserved and insular south.

Most of the people attending may be neighbours, some of whom have become friends over the years, but the majority in a larger road like ours are relative strangers.

You might be on nodding terms with some, while others may have parked in your favourite parking spot outside your house, thereby blotting their copybooks for life.

But hey, it’s a Royal wedding and that’s when you can grab the opportunity to make new friends, (unless of course they’ve taken the opportunity of several Bank Holidays to head off on holiday.) Surprisingly for local government, the amount of red tape involved in setting up a party and going for a road closure appears to be diminishing and there’s positive feedback from local councils about those booked.

So now all you need to do is rally the support from your street and share the workload!