I REFER to the letters recently published in the Bolton Evening News, in connection with the recent speeding offence on Chorley New Road by one of your readers.

Firstly, let me say that I accept that the 30mph sign on the left hand side of Chorley New Road as one approaches Bolton, was obstructed by branches from privately owned trees, which would lead your reader to have difficulty in seeing that sign from a distance.

However, I would respectfully point out that the 30mph sign on the right hand side on the approach to Bolton was not obstructed, and is clearly visible from at least 200m away. Therefore your reader had no excuse for not knowing that he was entering a 30mph area.

Yes, I have to concede that the quality of maintenance of signs is an issue that needs addressing, and many other people in the Borough hold the concerns expressed by Steve Tonge (Secretary of the Association of United Driving Instructors).

Why are we not maintaining signs as the public expects? Well the main reason is to do with budget constraints on the Council, both to pay staff to inspect and draw up maintenance programmes, and secondly, to fund the actual work. In times of financial constraint inevitably we end up having to prioritise our work. This has meant, for example, that over the last year we have concentrated our resources on dealing with the backlog of carriageway repairs. (Hopefully your readers will have noticed the big improvement in the quality of our main road surfaces over the last few months). However the down side has been the neglect of signs.

So how are we proposing to deal with problems of obstructed and ill-maintained signs? Well firstly local people can help in a number of ways; firstly by ensuring that if they have trees and hedges next to a road that they ensure that these do not obstruct road signs. (It shouldn't need a visit from a Council Inspector to get this done!). Secondly, when you see damaged or obstructed signs please let us know and we will promise to deal with the problem quickly.

One successful outcome from your reporting has been an agreement between Steve Tonge and Council officers to work more closely together to identify and deal with problems of inadequate signing. Hopefully this partnership will result in an improvement in the quality of signing across the whole Borough, leading to improved road safety and the quality of our local environment.

Jeff Layer

(Assistant Director,

Highways and

Engineering)