Ballast Replacement

[judderman1970]

As a follow up to my previous thread, I think my ballast needs to be renewed.
I bought a Haynes manual to assist me as I couldn't find much information online to do this.
It speaks of removing the front bumper and grill before removing the whole headlight to get to the ballast itself.
Balking at the thought of this, I've put it on the back burner for a while.
Last weekend I changed the oil and removing the under tray, I could see the ballast. I wonder if it's possible to get to it without all the removal procedure described in the manual. Maybe removing the wheel arch plastics ?

Anyone else replaced theirs ?

Cheers,
Stephen.