A Mr Alfie Searle of Buckland Dinham near Frome wrote to Somerset County Council on 28 Dec 2001 and again on 2 Apr 2002 about four newly-erected road width signs at the top of Castle Street and Catherine Street in Frome which each read ' 2.0m ' with no accompanying sign in Imperial.

The first reply (8/1/2002) from Asst. Highway Service Manager Jeff Bunting said: "...the signs you refer to are prescribed variants...and therefore can be usd on the public highway...".

Mr Bunting's second letter (1/5/2002) said: "...metric signs are in use throughout the country...I do not propose any action on this matter...there is little point in changing signs in Somerset unless every other highway authority were to do the same...such a course of action would be confusing for the driver".

Direct action has now been taken by an ARM supporter and each sign now reads: ' 6' - 6" '.

Please can you send a copy of the July 16th Dept of Transport memo to Mr Bunting. Thank you.

Judging by the proliferation of metric signs around the UK I ask two questions:

(1) Is it physically viable for a few fanatics to keep up with a growing trend of natural preference for intermediate distances to be expressed in metres.

(2) That present and future highways authorities will maintain an allegeance to an out-dated set of measurements that are not included in actual specifications for signs and the distances they represent.

I have personally spoken to Mr Jeff Bunting and he says he has never seen the 16 July Department for Transport Circular. He tells me he will look at our (very robust) letter and then take it up with the government. He does at least now concede he may be wrong.

As to whether a few 'fanatics' can hold out against the tide of metrication, this is a big subject, but I would observe the following:

a) the dice are heavily loaded in favour of the metricators who have resources (our money!) and power including the power to pass laws banning Imperial measures

b) there is evidence of a retreat from metricating road and pedestrian signs. I would cite, inter alia, the following:

(i) reported only today - after *twice* erecting metric-only signs along the River Avon, Stratford Council have now backed down and now have large signs in yards with smaller ones in metres in brackets afterwards
(ii) Lee Valley Park completely backed down after taking legal advice and are now replacing metric-only footpath signs with Imperial ones
(iii) after a lengthy battle with Portsmouth over their metric-only promenade sgns, all their new promenade signs are going up with Imperial first and metric second
(iv) Those authorities who have been 'pulled up' by BWMA, ARM, or dozens of individuals around the country generally do not repeat their 'metric mistakes' after they have been pointed out to them
(v) the 'proliferation' of reports of metric signs is largely due to the success of BWMA and ARM in highlighting the issue and securing considerable publicity, with the result that scores of 'spotters' around the country now feed in reports of 'sightings' to us
(vi) the entire Sustrans cycling network with very up-to-date cycling signs is in Imperial only.

Given that the recent survey commissioned by Warwick Cairns this year showed only 4% of the population normally thinking in kilometres and metres only - and 86% wanting signs to remain in Imperial only - the government will have a tough job justifying wasting £1 billion on a wholly unnecessary conversion exercise.

We must also remember that local highways officials have been *ordered* for many years to measure signs in metric, issue public notices in metric, write Council reports in metric etc., so it's not surprising that some of them make a genuine mistake in ordering signs with metric distances on them. The 'proliferation' (such as it is) therefore arises largely from government orders (which in turn came from the European Union); I think it is very likely that the 16 July Mike Talbot Department for Transport circular (which should have gone out years ago) will now minimise the number of 'metric mistakes' in the future.

The total number of signs known to ARM to have been replaced, removed or amended to Imperial now stands at 1,753. I am absolutely sure that during this time much fewer than 1,753 metric signs have gone up. In military terms, it is we who are advancing on this front at the moment.

I'll conclude by mentioning that the quarterly magazine 'This England', which claims a readership of 2 million patriotic British people world-wide, has in both its last two issues devoted significant space - and two photos - in support of ARM's campaign. And its Editor and Deputy Editor have both become paid-up ARM members and adopted ARM code names. With backing like that starting to come in, we are very optimistic right now about the eventual success of our 'Keep the Mile' campaign.

Mr AGPS of Buckland Dinham near Frome has reported still more illegal metric width-only signs in the Frome area and has now written to report more. He writes (24 November):

"I have written a letter to Mr Jeff Bunting and am waiting for a reply. In my letter to him I also mention another set of illegal road signs I have recently discovered. They are on the Nunney Road out of Badcocks in Frome. They describe the road width as '1.9m' only.

I would like to thank you and your associates for your support and the help you have given me in dealing with the resistance to metrication in my area.

Yrs sincerely etc.