The sign is that Keighley town centre bosses will fall foul of the law.

They've discovered that special signs to direct visitors to the bus and railway stations would not be legal.

And they've rejected alternative designs that would be acceptable to the government.

Keighley Town Centre Management Group wants to provide a range of easy-to-understand signs to help visitors.

It planned to start with a series of round signs on lamposts between the stations showing pictures of buses and trains.

It wanted to encourage people to use public transport as well as use local shops after visiting tourist attractions like Haworth and the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway.

Group members believed pictures would be ideal for visitors from countries such as Japan, as well as illiterate English people.

Bradford council highways officers suspected the signs would be illegal and checked with the Department of Transport in London.

The department sent back acceptable designs showing a human figure with either an old British Rail logo or the words "bus station".

Barry Thorne, chairman of the town centre group, fears such signs would clash with disability laws because they would disadvantage anyone unable to read. He says: "We are disappointed with the Department of Transport decision. We were trying to encourage people to use public transport. We eventually wanted to have co-ordinated pedestrian signs around town that would be the same colour and attractive to visitors."

Funding for the signs could be available through cash pots such as through Walking For Health or landfill tax.

Town centre manager Sandra Parnham is now writing to the Association of Town Centre Management for advice on how other towns have overcome the problem.

And she is looking at alternative options such as signs on shop walls or electricity boxes, and directional markers set into the pavement.

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