SPECIALIST climbers were swinging over the heads of shoppers last week as they cleaned the tent-like structures in the town centre.

The spider-like figures, from Sheffield-based Access Unlimited, were hard at work sprucing up the canopies around the town and re-tensioning the cables.

Company owner Dave Haughton explained that the Swindon job was fairly straightforward compared with many of the daredevil jobs they are asked to do, ranging from working on top of the Sydney Opera House to the Millennium Dome.

He said: "I started the company about nine years ago, because I was into climbing but I was fed up with being skint.

"We specialise in getting to out of the way places without having to put up pieces of scaffolding. We also carry out diving operations as well.

"A lot of people say it must be a dream job, but it is different to sport climbing and when we get home, the last thing we want to do is get into a harness."