That's the Volunteer Fire Department...

For reasons that are not entirely clear, a camper van with the markings of the Volunteer Fire Department of a small German town, of Stickenbuettel has appeared in our suburban street. Stickenbuettel is somewhere near the North German seaside resort of Cuxhaven near the mouth of the river Elbe. The van is UK-registered but, naturally, left-hand drive so presumably someone as bought it as a cheap way of going on holiday in Europe (Europe outside the British Isles , I mean. )

The Cuxhaven Fire Department, you will be pleased to hear, has its own exhaustive Wikipedia entry (in German) which tells us everything you need to know including the fact that they have their own cadet force, but not why they are flogging their surplus vehicles to suburban mid-Sussex.