Expensive road signs rarely cleaned, FOI figures reveal

COUNCILS spend thousands of pounds on road signs but some authorities rarely clean them, it was revealed yesterday.

Spending on road signage also varies massively across council districts in England and Scotland, figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show.

In Ross, Skye and Lochaber in the Scottish Highlands, about 100,000 is spent on road signs every year, but they are cleaned "very rarely", with only about 3,000 spent on the clean-up.

In contrast, Hertfordshire council cleans signs once a year at a cost of more than 380,000, according to the FOI figures obtained by breakdown service Autonational Rescue.

North Lanarkshire in Scotland is one of the biggest spenders, with road signs costing 378,641 a year, the figures show.

Signs there are cleaned twice a year or following reports or complaints, with 100,000 set aside for the cleaning.

Autonational Rescue spokesman Roger Eversley said: "The local authorities which are cleaning road signs deserve praise.

"But it does seem as though some spend a small fortune putting up warning signs, only to forget about them."