I can see the point of boundary signs telling you that you have reached the village, town or city to which you were headed but I seem to be missing something ... what is the point (if there is one) of signs telling you the name of the local authority that administers that area?

On the A646 from Burnley to Todmorden, there is a patch where, in the space of maybe 50 metres, you pass a sign telling you are in West Yorkshire (which was actually abolished as a Metropolitan County in 1986 but there still seems to be a budget somewhere for useless road signs like this one which looks pretty new-ish), then one saying you are in Calderdale (the local Unitary authority), then one saying you are in Todmorden (which you are not, the town is some miles away and you have actually just entered the local non-county Borough which is also called Todmorden) ... and then one telling you that you are in Portsmouth (the name of the actual village, a fact you maybe did need to know).

I have seen similar excess signage in many and various parts of the UK and I wonder a) what use it all is and b) how much money is wasted on this ugly junk.

Many councils are now rationalising their directional and restrictional traffic signs and are making their towns and villages look much better and, in some cases, safer ... for me it's also time to ditch most of the useless boundary signs.

Please don't extend your campaign to include the old milestones and "horse mount" mileage indicators that still exist around these parts

I regard those in the same way as ancient monuments and they should have protected status (indeed, many are).

I met a guy on a hilltop who was having his sandwich next to a (nowadays disused) Ordnance Survey Triangulation station.
His job was painting and sometimes repairing them as the Ordnance Survey had given them all away to whoever wanted to maintain them.
He was employed by either Calderdale or some other authority and milestones also came under his remit.
In his rucksack he carried his paint, brushes, cleaner, water and concrete etc.

I went through one of those "I want his job" moments.

The signs should read "You're in Yorkshire, abandon all hope"

We have other tried and tested ways of deterring Southerners and Lancastrians ... it's called attitude.
And we are always right.

It works better than any signage but the occasional innocent does slip through.
We pity them because we are compassionate.
But still right.

Anyway, back to boundary signs ... on the same stretch of A646 but going towards Burnley (not recommended) you pass a similar plethora of signs about Lancashire, Burnley and, get this, the "Parish of Cliviger" ... wtf?

Self-aggrandisement, justification of the existence of the local authority in question and, dare I use the dread word, branding.

Thanks John, you've put my mind at rest.
At least it's worth it then.

Someone, somewhere, will have told the authority that sticking a logo on everything will communicate the synergy of brand <council name> to the people and blah blah blah kill me now. All at a reasonable cost, I feel sure.

It works in reverse when entering the Bradford Met region of course where they try not to advertise the fact, the only time you know that you're not in Bradford is after you've left it on the ring road and suddenly you see a big sign informing you that you're now in Leeds and people will probably stop pointing at your car now.

Like the campaign a few years back to put pink signs randomly all over Salford that said "IN Salford".

IIRC the RFL hired the idiot whose idea that was ... AFTER he'd done it.

A bit like those teams who take a map of a town and divide up the town centre area, shading nice coloured shapes onto it and calling them "quarters", like "Theatre Quarter" because that's where the (sometimes only) theatre is and "Civic Quarter" because that's where the Town Hall is ... these are then renamed again and colour-coded as TQ or CQ, so that they can erect coloured signs to tell you the route to TQ and CQ (regardless of whether you can park there) ... because, obviously, you'd need to know, even though they were vacuous and feckin meaningless.
Halifax and Wakefield come to mind but there will be many more, I think Bradford were thinking about it but just knocked the town centre down instead.

It's not just councils.

Our housing association suddenly decided to put new signs on our block with the name of the block on and the name of the housing association on. These are next to the two back entrances. Which are only entered via a gated carpark.

Still, at least we now know the name of the block in which we live and the name of the company that can't be bothered to hire gardeners who do anything.

Now known as the Desolate Quarter (DQ on signs).

Oh don't ... onto another of my bugbears.

In the lovely town of Hebden Bridge, the Visitor and Canal Centre had a lovely sign painted on one side, all beautifully-done in large writing, narrow-boat style, proclaiming it as, erm, the Hebden Bridge Visitor and Canal centre.
All well and good, yes?
So, along comes the council who nail a municipal-looking plastic sign to the existing lovely sign.
What did it say? ... "Hebden Bridge Visitor and Canal Centre".

The narrow-boat-writing sign has since been repainted as a mural (not as nice, but hey, not bad) but it still says Hebden Bridge Visitor and Canal Centre ... and the municipal sign was removed.
So, along comes the council [uagain[/u who nail the same type of municipal-looking plastic sign to the mural.
What did it say this time? ... "Hebden Bridge Visitor and Canal Centre".

The Picture House (a 1920's period gem, listed grade II) has its original carved-in-stone title PICTURE HOUSE high up and two flutteringly attractive banners alongside the lovely wood-and-glass entrance doors, both of which simply say PICTURE HOUSE.
It has the usual glass cases outside advertising whats-on and whats-coming-soon.
No mistaking what this building is.
So, along comes the council who nail a municipal-looking plastic sign to the building which says "Hebden Bridge Picture House".

What kind of morons do we employ?

At least the signs in Hebden Bridge do not (or did not when I was last there) have a large sponsor name. I remember ones around Sheffield that advertised a company but you had to squint to see it was Sheffield you were entering (and not blundering into Rotherham or Barnsley).

Oh, the colour for Salford is cerise: the street cleaning vans are a very amazing sight but not as good as maps showing parks in ... cerise.

Big ones.

That actually reminds me that Hackney council has done the same sort of thing to the council blocks along our street. They're the early 20th-century ones that are about four stories and still decent. And they have the names of the houses already present. It's just replicated on newer signs now.

And yes, the sponsorship that Hillbilly Red mentions – really irritates me to see, say, police vans that are sponsored.

They did and he was responsible for getting rid of the 13 logo and replacing it with the rather bland logo we have now

You've got the wrong side of the Tees there mate

When I lived in Stone, Staffs, the original brown Tourist Info sign simply read "STONE - CANAL TOWN". It didn't take long for one wag to take a pot of brown paint to the 'C' in "CANAL". Within 24 hours of the council rectifying it, he was back again. Looks like they've finally given up and gone all "mod"



Mind you, as far as defaced street signs go, I still love this from Canal Street in the Pink Quarter in Manchester

Don't you just love the fact though that they still call it a "Picture House" even on the updated plastic sign?

Bet you wouldn't get that in Milton Keynes.

Yeah.

... the land that time forgot, a multiplex it ain't.
On Thursdays, they do 11:00 morning screenings when, included in the £5 price, you get a china mug of tea and a biscuit to take in with you.
One of these Thursdays, I'm going to give that a go myself, dodging the pensioners out on the pull.

The good news is that it transferred from Calderdale council to local council ownership last year, so the plastic Calderdale sign has now gone!!
A local Picture House for local people.
You'll never leave ...

Slightly related...Where I used to live the council (presumably) installed big bold new signs to inform people driving down the main road that "This is a Police enforcement area". I'm not sure how this distinguished the area from others as surely the Police enforce law and order in all areas??? The only effect I could see was to waste tax payer cash, and give a horrible big brother style message that the authorities were watching!

My favourite ones are the ones that say "No unwanted callers". How do people know if they're wanted or not without knocking on the door and asking?

The EDL will tell you about Police no-go areas