TikTok star claims Watford home to dirtiest signs

A dirty no waiting sign half cleaned by a pole-brush coming into shot from the rightImage source, The Sign Guy
Image caption,

The Sign Guy said the dirtiest signs he had found were along the A41 in Watford

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A man who cleans road signs for free and posts videos on TikTok has named Watford as having the worst he has seen.

Liam Wildish, 27, who lives in Oxted, Surrey, and travels the UK cleaning signs for his The Sign Guy, external account, said signs along the A41 in Hertfordshire were the dirtiest he had seen in the country.

He explained: "Watford's probably the worst area I've ever attended to, on the A41 especially as there's a lot of carbon build up on the signs."

Watford Borough Council has been approached for comment.

Image source, Lily-May Symonds/BBC
Image caption,

Liam Wildish uses equipment from when he was a window cleaner to clean signs

The professional spray painter added: "For some reason there just seems to have been no care to the signs on the A41 in that particular stretch.

"That's not me slating any council. I don't do that, but that area in particular has no maintenance."

He explained the dirt had been caused by "a lot of traffic, a lot of stationary vehicles" which can cause carbon to stick to the sign.

Image source, The Sign Guy
Image caption,

The Sign Guy said this Watford sign was dirty due to a mix of carbon and algae

The former window cleaner started using his equipment to clean road signs about five years ago. He started filming the process and eventually earned millions of viewers.

He said: "I never expected when I started uploading them on social media that it would be an international fan base, that came as quite a surprise.

"I get requested to go to all sorts of areas - I've followed through a lot of them as well.

"Italy get heavily requested for some reason, which is a bit of a trek in the van."

Mr Wildish explained it took about three minutes to clean a sign but most of his time was spent trying to find the dirty ones.

He said: "We have to source those signs, I have to physically drive around and find them, that's the time consuming part."

Image source, Lily-May Symonds/BBC
Image caption,

Liam Wildish visited parts of Hertfordshire to clean road signs

Mr Wildish, who is originally from Nottinghamshire, said: "There's a little element of satisfaction driving down a road and seeing a clean sign and thinking 'I did that'.

"It's really rewarding. Maybe people will think that's quite sad, but I really like it."

Media caption,

LISTEN: TikTok star: Watford has UK's dirtiest road signs

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