DRIVERS have been left baffled after a local council made an embarrassing speed limit sign blunder.
Council bosses were forced to cover up dozens of new 20mph signs with bin bags after forgetting to remove the old 30mph signage in Witney, Oxfordshire.
The market town, which sits in ex-PM David Cameron’s former constituency, is set to roll out a 20mph limit on all it’s roads.
Unfortunately, the contractors putting up the new signs forgot to remove road paint spelling out the old 30 and 40mph limits.
This meant that confused drivers just ignored the 20mph limit.
Every single one of the now-obsolete new signs had to be covered up with black bags until the mistake could be corrected.
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The error was pointed out last week by Councillor Liam Walker on his Facebook page.
He wrote: “They are supposed to cover the new ones over until all of them are in place but they are trying to rush it through so they put up all these 20mph signs but also left the existing 30mph and 40mph ones in place.
“It’s left many wondering what exactly the new speed limit is.”
Councillor Walker added: “I think a lot of people were reflecting on whether spending £8m changing road signs in areas where there haven’t been fatalities, where there has been no data collected to suggest people are speeding, I think people are against it.
“Outside schools, town centres, outside busy shopping areas, that makes sense, but blanket 20mph through the whole of the town just seems ridiculous.”
He said that the council was only recently “pleading” for more money for social care, but the £8 million bills for new signs made it clear that “their priorities are wrong”.
Witney chose to become the first fully 20mph town in July, shortly after the whole of Wales adopted the policy.
At the time, Councillor Andrew Grant, the council’s cabinet member for Highways Management, called it a “landmark moment”, while Witney mayor Liz Ducan said it would improve road safety.
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Regarding the signage issues, a spokesman for Oxfordshire County Council said: “The Witney changes are currently being rolled out.
“Some issues regarding confusing signage were brought to our attention and we have acted accordingly by covering up signs.”
