Pembrokeshire County Council has released a bid for this year’s Christmas number one, as the authority’s building maintenance team give a heartfelt rendition of a Coldplay classic.

Following previous years’ hits including a Waste & Recycling service Elvis singing binman and a Freddie Mercury tribute ‘Thank God it’s Christmas’, this year’s offering comes courtesy of the Housing Building Maintenance service.

The song is a re-working of the famous Coldplay hit Fix You and the video stars a number of council staff alongside council tenants in supporting roles.

The two main stars of the song, Nigel Phillips and Matthew John, both work as masons within the Building Maintenance service and have been with the team for more than 20 years each.

The video was created to recognise the outstanding service that the housing building maintenance staff have delivered – particularly under Covid restrictions which have prevented them from entering homes to carry out non-urgent repairs.

Covid has inevitably caused a backlog of jobs that the service is now working very hard to reduce, alongside the 38,000 service requests that come in on average every year.

Video creator Mark Bond, customer liaison officer for housing, said: “There was a lovely response to previous videos we’d made and while they brought some much needed appreciation for those who collect our waste, we were able to communicate some really important messages about the service - and this video is no different.

“The council’s building maintenance team works tirelessly to put right what’s wrong in tenants’ homes and they deserve their moment in the spotlight for that.”

Cllr Michelle Bateman, cabinet member for housing said: “We are really proud of our entire housing service in what are challenging times and it was great to publicly recognise our maintenance service in this video and show the people and personalities behind the service.

“The video has already had a terrific response on social media and there’s still plenty of time before Christmas for Pembrokeshire to show their appreciation for what these people do.”

The council thanked Bethel Baptist Church, Pembroke Dock and Calvary Church, Haverfordwest for locations used in the video, Pure West Radio for its ongoing support and to tenants, residents and colleagues for embracing the project and playing their part in making it happen.