This letter was published in the Poole Adveriser 20/09/01:
Metric Madness
Your correspondent R. D. Davies is, in fact, correct when he writes in
the Adveriser that it is illegal to have signposts in metres. Traffic
Regulations General Directions 1994 require directional signs
communicating distance on roads and footpaths to be in yards, miles and
mph. The Dept. of Environment recommends that even signs not covered by
the regulations use the same measures for consistency.
I have struggled for ten months to bring this matter to the attention of
Poole Council and because of delay, intransigence and obstruction was
forced to bring it to full Council last month. While admitting that they
may have made an error, the ruling administration of the Council decided
to do nothing about the signs displayed in metres on Poole Promenade. As
a result, Poole Council is in the ludicrous position of requiring small
traders to comply with selling loose goods in kilos, while the Council
itself defies the law in respect of signs in metres that should be in
yards.
This is a slippery slope. When government, local or national, with the
duty to enforce laws and regulations on its residents starts to choose
which laws it applies itself and which it ignores, ordinary individuals
should start to count their liberties and freedoms.
Why are Councils up and down the country illegally erecting metric signs
for distance? Why are they pursuing metric measures as if they were some
holy totem to be worshipped? One clue may be that when I questioned the
legality of these signs in Poole, I was abused in the local press by the
Leader of the Council and denounced for “Europhobia”. Could it be that
a certain type of Englishman is so keen to see this country subsumed
into a new Continental Empire ruled by an unelected Politburo in
Brussels that they wish to extinguish every distinguishing mark of
British culture?
Cllr. Tony Woodcock (Civic Centre, Poole)
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