Article from: www.thenewspaper.com/news/06/635.asp
9/5/2005
UK County Spends $140K on Road Ownership Signs
UK Highways Agency spends thousands to raise awareness of the UK Highways Agency.
Motorists in Cumbria, UK will have no difficulty discovering who's responsible for the maintenance of the roads on which they are driving. The Highways Agency has begun a campaign to "raise awareness," spending £76,352 (US $140,789) on thirty-four signs that read, "Highways Agency" or "Highways Agency End" in the county.
According to Transport Secretary Alistair Darling, "The purpose is to advise road users that a road is maintained, managed and operated by the Highways Agency. This enables road users to direct their views to the correct authority and increases awareness of the Agency's role in managing the country's strategic road network."
David Maclean, a Member of Parliament for the area, disagreed. "I have never heard such tosh, drivel and rubbish in all my years as an MP," Maclean told the Cumbria News and Star. "This is the most scandalous waste of £76,000 to tell motorists what they already know, that the Government is in charge of our motorways and major trunk roads."
Article Excerpt:Mr Maclean added: "What rankles more is the hypocrisy. I have constituents who cannot get signs on the A66 directing visitors to their business, pub or tourist attraction. The Highways Agency says that it would lead to road clutter and the public would be confused by too many signs. Yet these same people are cluttering the M6 and A66 with 34 totally worthless signs with no interest to anybody except the busy little bureaucrats who thought of them."
Source: 76,000 SIGNS TELL YOU WHO OWNS THE ROAD (News and Star (Cumbria, UK), 9/5/2005)
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