Northampton Chronicle and Echo report the Council's recovery of 14 illegal metric signs today - see their website: www.northantsnews.com and click on 'News'.

Extracts from the report: "The Chronicle and Echo tracked the signs down where they had ben left in the wood between Denton and Horton [NOTE: A splendid photograph of two metric signs lying in the ditch accompanies the story]. A spokesman for Northampton Borough Council said: 'The Council regrets...this action as we previously [said] the signs concerned would be amended...the signs wil be replaced as soon as possible with the necessary amendments. Unfortuantely this has now cost more than simply over labelling the disputed distances'

The complete text of the news article referred to above is as follows:

ANTI-Europe campaigners have taken direct action over illegal metric road signs in Northampton, by removing them and hiding them in undergrowth.

Members of the UK Independence Party’s Guard The Yard campaign took down 14 road signs put up by Northampton Borough Council. Under British law, road and pedestrian signs must be in miles, yards, feet and inches unlike the continent which uses kilometres and metres.

The road signs were taken from sites in Junction Road, St George’s Avenue, Pleydell Road and Delapre Crescent and left in the wood between Denton and Horton. The Chronicle & Echo tracked the signs down where they had been left for the council’s Highways Department to collect.

Campaigners claimed the use of metric measurements was another example of attempts to Europeanise Britain through the back door. UK Independence’s Tony Bennett said: “It was obvious to us that the council was going to carry on breaking the law as they have for eight months since these signs were erected. They showed no sign of removing or over-labelling them in yards. “The signs haven’t been damaged. We’ve asked the council to re-erect them in legal yards and not illegal metres, If they don’t comply, further legal or direct action will be taken.”

In April, the political party threatened to issue a legal writ over road hump signs giving distances in metres and not yards in several Northampton streets. It has also reported Northampton Borough Council to the Audit Commission for what it claims is unauthorised spending on illegal signs.

A spokesman for Northampton Borough Council said: “The council regrets that the UK Independence Party has taken this action as they have been informed previously that the signs concerned would be amended. “We are grateful that they informed us where the signs have been left and they have now been recovered. “As previously indicated, the signs will be replaced as soon as possible with the necessary amendments. Unfortunately this has now cost more than simply labelling over the disputed distances.”