A Keighley tourism stalwart is seeing red over these road signs which have been placed around the district.

They may point the way to Yorkshire's own Bront Country but for many a true Tyke they will be a blooming thorn in the side.

For the signs proudly carry - a red rose!

"It's sacrilege," says Graham Mitchell, treasurer of Keighley and Haworth Tourism Management Group.

"These signs have just popped up like Easter bunnies.

"It's very nice to have Bront Country signs but it does seem bizarre to have a rose which in many people's minds will appear to be the red rose of Lancashire. If they had to use a rose at all on the sign surely it should have been white, or have we been given away by Bradford?".

Carolyn Spencer - co-ordinator of the Bront Country Partnership - is pleased signs have been erected, but she agrees the red rose was perhaps not a good choice.

But the Highways Agency, which was responsible for supplying the signs, says the red rose is a recognised statutory symbol of the Tourist Board and features on signposts throughout the country.

David Andrews, chief executive of the Yorkshire Tourist Board, told us: "White on brown signs are used to welcome visitors and indicate the availability of facilities and features of particular interest to tourists.

"Bront Country does not have its own symbol and this is why the default symbol of the red rose was used.

"The red rose depicts the English rose, branding Bront Country as an English tourist destination.

There is a high degree of consistency in tourism signing policies across the region which are regulated through the local highway authorities."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.