A demetrication raid is planned for this Saturday (5th January) for a south coast resort with metric signs on its promenade (not Portsmouth)

Active Service Unit

On investigation, the following were found in Hastings and Bexhill-on-Sea by a team from the Metric Pollution Unit:

1. At least 11 black-and-white cast-iron fingerpost signs, 10 of them with metric distances on. Quite possibly there are more; there was insufficient time to investigate further. The posts had a total of around 55 fingers; two fingerpost signs had 10 fingers on each post (Warrior Square and a site about 1/4 mile west of Warrior Square). Most were on the promenade; 2 in Bexhill-on-Sea. There was one strange feature about them; they were all in metres, not kilometres, no matter how far the distance. The longest distance we discovered was '3040m'. You would never find that on the continent, just as you would never find signs like Portsmouth's, marked up in quarters of a kilometres. It illustrates how silly we look trying to import an alien system.

2. Five double-side road traffic signposts, with normal reflective Department of Transport-style lettering, black-on-white, on aluminium signs, giving directions to the Samaritans and the Salvation Army in metres, on the A2101 (London Road) amongst the shops. Bizarrely, two of them were adjacent to signs to the Unitarian and United Reformed Churches, both in yards.

3. Three signs in a car park close to the Old Town giving distances to humps, all in metres, from '5m' to '150m'.

4. An information sign by the Tourist Board on one of the fishermen's 'net' houses giving the distance of something as '150 mts'.

5. Several car parks giving only metric heights, either '2m', 2.2m' or '2.25m' (some were marked up in dual units).

6. A road sign on the Hastings to Bexhill Road saying 'Beach 400m'.

7. Two signs on the A21 giving the entrance to Claremont School as '50 metres ahead' (on the A21 about 4 miles north of Hastings).

Dealing with the above matters respectively, the following action has been taken:

1. Three of the posts, including the two in Bexhill-on-Sea, have been demetricated by the use of black-painted plates with white reflective lettering on all their fingers (like Ely); 22 new distances have been erected to date. Notes have been made on the other 8 posts and suitably sized and lettered plates are now in preparation with a view to another 'raid' in Hastings.

2. These 5 double-sided signs have all been demetricated by the paint-and-black-card method and now display appropriate distances in yards ('yd' or 'yds').

3. These have been removed and the Council will be informed and offered their return if they give an undertaking to amend them to British units before re-erecting them.

4. The letters 'Mts'; have been replaced with a white-on-black small metal plate saying 'YDS'

5. The car parks with metric-only heights on them (three) have had their metric distances painted over and black card has been used to indicate the correct height in feet and inches.

6. The legend '400m' has been covered over by a white-on-black plate saying '1/4 m'.

7. The legends 'metres' have been covered over with white-on-black plates saying 'yds'.

In addition, two unnecessary triangular bridge height signs on the Hastings to Bexhill Road in metres have been removed, leaving only the British signs in feet and inches in place.

A total of 44 metric distances were covered up or removed during the operation.

Metric Pollution Division

I don't know if this is still the case, but on the Ashburnham road between Boreham Street and Battle (the A271 I think) there were signs for Ashburnham Park given in metres only. If I remember well, these seemed to have been erected by the Ashburnham Park, but were on the roadside so are presumably illegal.

Another day-long raid is planned, again on the south coast, in the next two weeks. One hundred specially-numbered and lettered plates have been prepared to replace metres with English miles, fractions of miles and yards. The Ashburnham information has been carefully noted

Active Service Unit