Image: Mark Flewitt
Southend Councillors who have been cleaning dirty road signs have called concerns about health and safety from council officers “ridiculous.”
Conservative councillors in Southend-on-Sea have been out cleaning street signs in St Laurence ward for four years without incident.
However, the city council’s Interim Highways Director has recently written to them highlighting liability and safety concerns.
In a defiant statement from Councillors, they said they “will not stop.”
Councillor David McGlone said, “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.”
“Lucky an accident hasn’t happened”:
In an email seen by Chamber UK, Interim Director of Highways and Parks at the city council, John Burr 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.”
In an official statement in response to the email, Cabinet Member for Transport Councillor Ron Woodley said the email was to ensure councillors understood the dangers and public liability. He said, “we’ve got to be careful about what we do as councillors.”
Warning against others from trying to clean signs, he said it was “lucky an accident hasn’t happened” and that the cleaning could lead to people “getting hurt” or distracting drivers.
The Council has encouraged anyone to report a dirty sign using their website.