ROAD signs welcoming people to Lancashire as they leave Bolton and Bury have been taken down by campaigners fighting to restore the county's traditional boundaries.

Pressure group CountyWatch removed roadside signs just outside Horwich on the A673 leading to Chorley, and north of Belmont on the A675.

Three signs in Ramsbottom were also removed, and a sign welcoming people to the Red Rose County was taken down on the M66 near Haslingden.

CountyWatch insists the signs - put up in 2004 to inform people where the services of Lancashire County Council begin - are illegal because Lancashire starts at its historic boundaries with Cheshire and Yorkshire.

The administrative boundaries were changed when the old Greater Manchester County Council was created in 1974.

But the action group could face proceedings if Lancashire County Council decides to prosecute.

The leader of Lancashire County Council, Hazel Harding, said: "It is a shame that people have nothing better to do. These people don't even come from Lancashire, and to come hundreds of miles to do this is very sad."

CountyWatch was formed 18 months ago to preserve county identities in the face of boundary changes for local government purposes. It says it is using a clause under section 131 of the Highways Act, 1980, which states signs can be removed if they are not legal, to justify their actions. Tony Bennett, secretary of the national campaign group, said: "Bolton and Ramsbottom are part of Lancashire. These signs are wrongly placed, and mislead people.

"People have been very supportive. If you ask them which part of the country they come from, they will say 'Bolton, Lancashire'.

"These signs should be placed on the boundaries dividing Yorkshire, Cheshire and Lancashire."

"We object to the destruction of county identities.

"People have ties to their county, like Lancashire Cricket Club, and if we do not protest now then counties will disappear altogether.

"Lancashire was first formed in 1168 and it is slowly disappearing. According to these signs, Bolton is no longer a part of the county."

Now campaigners are debating whether to ceremonially lay the signs on the step of County Hall in Preston or to deposit them on the Lancashire border.