Illegal road signs are 'cluttering up' Cullingworth and putting drivers' safety at risk.

So fed up are villagers at the number of advertising boards, fly posters and sandwich boards that have sprung up over the autumn, that some signs have mysteriously begun disappearing. Others have been turned round to face in the wrong direction, or hidden - and the 'sign vandal's' actions have the full support of parish councillors.

Parish councillors warn that the signs, put up illegally, are 'cluttering' the roads through the village and could easily distract motorists passing through.

The signs - put up by various business, pubs, garden centres, even line-dancing groups - have appeared on lamp-posts, under road signs and on the pavement.

While some signs have been put up correctly, many have been erected without permission from highways officials.

"If one person can get away with putting up signs, then everyone else will feel they can get away with it too," warns parish council chairman John Brigg. "They are appearing everywhere - not just in Cullingworth but as far away as Ogden and Haworth.

"The signs are a road hazard because they will catch a driver's eye when they should be concentrating on the road. They are also unsightly and not very attractive."

Fellow councillor Bryan Hobson, who has asked Bradford council to take action, adds: "I think people are perfectly entitled to take down these signs. They have been put up illegally."

But the authority's highways department warns that it is against the law to take down the signs, even though they may have been illegally erected. A spokesman told us: "Councillors have asked us to remove and dispose of any boards which have been placed on footways less than one and half metres in width or which have been attached to lamp-posts, guard rails or other items of street furniture.

"Our policy is to ask firms to remove the signs causing an obstruction on street furniture.

"Advertising boards usually obstruct the public highway are an offence."

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