A STREET in Brighton Hill has turned out to sing from their gardens for a girl celebrating her 8th birthday in lockdown.

Olivia Dinsey, who turned eight on Wednesday, April 1, had all of her birthday plans thrown out of the window when the UK went into partial lockdown in March.

Determined not to let the doom and the gloom get the better of the day, her mother, Kelly, father, Gary and brother Edward, decided to set on a secret mission to get their neighbours to sing Olivia happy birthday instead. In the end, 20 of the neighbours in her cul-de-sac on Gershwin Road joined in the song at 10.30am sharp.

Kelly told the Gazette: “She was so surprised by what she saw.

“There was lots of people there. There was neighbours holding happy birthday banners, there was friends putting presents on the table, it was as good as we could get.

“I knew our next door neighbours and the one next to them would come out but we don’t really see the other neighbours often.”

Kelly added that the coronavirus pandemic has made her feel “like we’re in something together” and that it has brought the community in her cul-de-sac closer.

“When we go for our daily walks, I have had to explain to them what is going on. We are speaking to everybody that we walk past at a distance. My daughter said that everyone is saying hello to each other.”

To round off her birthday celebrations, Olivia had a Zoom call with her school friends and another with family.