Villagers win battle of the 'welcome' signs
A village has won its fight to hang on to its cherished identity after town hall bureaucrats removed signs welcoming people to their village.
Residents of Brereton in Staffordshire were furious when two new signs went up in the village welcoming visitors - to Rugeley.
A campaign was started to have them removed.
Now a county councillor has entered the fray and offered to pay for, not two, but five new signs spelling out the message Welcome To Brereton.
Councillor Alan Dudson said he had received a number of complaints about the offending roadside posts and was persuaded by the protesters' arguments.
He said: "It's a nonsense. There should have been consultation on it before the Rugeley signs were put up because there's no way people would have agreed to it and a lot of money would have been saved."
Brereton was once a bustling village in its coal-mining heyday and has arguably lost some of its character since the decline of the industry.
Wikipedia describes it as a 'former village' in the district of Cannock Chase which 'once had a separate identity but is now effectively subsumed into the town of Rugeley.'
But Breretonians would beg to differ, and when Cannock Chase Council came along and stuck up Welcome To Rugeley signs at either end of the High Street, insult was piled on injury.
District councillor Paul Fisher, who represents the ward, led the campaign to get them removed and have the old signs reinstated.
He claimed the new markers should have been placed a mile away from where they have been erected, where the boundary lies.
The first sign is near to the Red Lion Pub on Main Road in Brereton and the second is on Armitage Road, on the boundary with Lichfield.
It left no signs welcoming people to Brereton and the parish council complained to the district council.
Regeneration chief Councillor Diane Todd tried to explain the move by saying replacing the old signs, most of them about 20 years old, was part of a move to boost the area's look. Changing the wording from Brereton to Rugeley was to identify the town centre ahead rather than the ward area.
But Councillor Dudson, who is forking out more than £2,000 from his personal county council budget for the signage, said: "The people of Brereton deserve to keep their identity. I believe in actions, not words, and I hope the new signs will be ready by Christmas."
The signposts will go either end of Armitage Road, at the bottom of Brereton Road, in Coalpit Lane and on the approach to village from the Lichfield direction, near to the junction of Coal Pit Lane on the main road.
Councillor Todd had explained Cannock Chase Council had been replacing road signs and street nameplates town centre areas.
She said many road signs were installed 20 years ago and many of the legs supporting them were rusted beyond repair and needed upgrading.
"It is intended to provide clear signage identifying and promoting town centres especially for people who may not be familiar with the area," she said.
"The district council is not changing ward boundaries, in any way but in a small number of locations, some of the ward signage will be replaced with the new signs that identify the town centre rather than ward area. The A51 from Lichfield is one of the main gateways into Rugeley town and that is why this particular sign has been erected there. Whilst this may be of concern, establishing clear signage to town centres is part of a wide programme of other changes that taken together, are aimed at supporting and revitalising our town centres."
