Local ARM supporters have reported:

24 new brown tourist signs in the Borough, giving directions to the 'Visitor Information Centre'; 15 of them, giving distances of half-a-mile or more, in miles, but the other 9 giving distances of less than half-a mile in metres

B) four width restrcition signs in the Beetons Way area showing only '2.4m' with no signs in feet and inches, either warning of the restriction or at the restriction

C) a sign off Newmarket Road to a weight restriction: '570 metres'

D) a sign at the top of Cornhill to a Car Park: '200 metres', and

E) a sign in the Town Centre (just outside the Council Offices): Nuffield Hospital 70 metres.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

They inform us that action has been taken as follows:

A - metric distances painted over with matching brown paint, and then signs with the correct distance in yards affixed over the paint to replace them

B - signs removed and the Council informed

C - changed to read '600 yards'

D - changed to read '250 yards'

E - changed to read '80 yards'.

C, D, ad E were accomplished by overpainting the metric units in black, waiting for the paint to dry, and then affixing reflective adhesive Department-for-Transport-quality white lettering.

These 16 amendments bring the total number of signs demetricated and known to ARM to 1,897.

Just hope your sign painters have got some nice tall ladders and plenty of nerve.

I am reliably informed of some naughty metric only signs above a busy highway more than 5 metres up.

I won't bother to say where as I'm sure the spotters will find them.

Already some illegal metric signs at around fifteen feet above the ground have been reached by climbing on to bridges and taking appropriate action 'from the top down', so to speak.

But a more handy implement of ARM's has also been used: 'Ollie the Obliterator', a 9-foot long, 2" x 2", piece of best British hardwood with a trigger at one end and a black aerosol can at the other, linked by string which is thread throughh a series of eyelets. There is also a device at the 'aerosol' end which holds the aerosol can at just the ideal distance from the target. This has been successfully 'road-tested' at heights of up to fourteen feet.

Then we have 'Henry the Height-Enhancer, a 16"-square table with four screw-on legs, each with an adjustable strengthening aluminium strut. The contraption can easily be carried in a plastic carrier bag and assembled before you can say 'demetrification'. It came in jolly useful in Hyde Park because the metric footpath signs in the Park are at an awkward height of about seven foot six to eight feet above ground. A ladder would attract attention. A Tesco carrier bag doesn't.

These 'demetrication aids' have been devised and donated free by two of ARM's engineers.

Ollie was devised and produced by Chief ARM Engineer 'Q', whose shed and workshop can be viewed at:

http://www.sovereignty.org.uk/siteinfo/newsround/tbennett4.html

must say I enjoyed both the engineering concepts
and the descriptive writing style of the preceeding

L

The 'raid' by supporters of ARM in Bury St. Edmunds was in yesterday's 'Bury Free Press' and can be viewed at:

http://www.buryfreepress.co.uk/fullstory.asp?storyid=6

All you do with such gadgets is obliterate signs not alter them "professionally" as you normally boast.

This is from a letter receieved by ARM from Mr Ian Brewster, The Engineer (Highways) for St. Edmundsbury Borough Council, 4 Dec 2002:

"I do not intend to take any legal action against unauthorised people removing road signs (*1)...If you believe there are any other illegal metric road signs within the Borough, then please feel free to contact this office, preferably by telephone...


* Section 131(2) Highways Act authorises *anyone* to 'pull down' or 'obliterate' any sign 'unlawfully placed on the highway'

"* Section 131(2) Highways Act authorises *anyone* to 'pull down' or 'obliterate' any sign 'unlawfully placed on the highway'"

Here we go again, no it doesn't!

It merely says that you cannot be prosecuted under the 1980 highways act for pulling down or obliterating a sign without reasonable excuse, under that particular act. It doesn't concern offences under other acts that may apply also.

You've got away with it so far Tony et al, but don't push your luck!