Southend councillors cleaning road signs dismiss safety worry

Conservative councillor David McGlone has been cleaning dirty road signs in the Essex city

Councillors who took it upon themselves to clean dirty road signs said concerns about safety from council officers were "ridiculous".

A group of Conservative councillors in Southend-on-Sea say they have been doing the work in St Laurence ward for four years without incident.

Southend-on-Sea City Council's interim highways director has written to them with liability and safety concerns.

The councillors involved said they would not stop.

David McGlone, one of the cloth-wielding councillors, said they had been working alongside a local action group to make the signs more legible.

"I find the whole thing ridiculous," he said.

"I'd like to think I'm pretty safe with a ladder, been using them for a long, long time.

"We always make sure there is someone standing at the bottom, so therefore we feel it is safe."

Southend City Council wrote to councillors to say cleaning the signs was a safety risk

Part of the council officials' concerns centred around public liability if accidents were to happen.

In an email John Burr, interim director of highways and parks at the council, said although the action was "community spirited" it should stop due to "associated risks".

He wrote: "Undertaking such works on the public highway creates a whole host of serious issues around personal liability for the individuals concerned and could have a detrimental impact on the highway users."

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Independent councillor Ron Woodley, cabinet member for transport, said the email was to ensure councillors understood the dangers and public liability.

"We've got to be careful about what we do as councillors," he added.

He said that they were "lucky an accident hasn't happened" and said the cleaning could lead to people getting hurt or be a distraction to drivers.

He has encouraged the group to report any dirty signs to their council officers instead.