COUNCIL EXONERATED OVER 'CONFUSING' SIGNS

A bizarre traffic accident has justified Froghill Council’s decision to position two entirely different warning signs on the same stretch of road.

The signs, which stand on opposite sides of Three Mile Lane, Cheetingham, both face in the same direction. One warns drivers of to be on the lookout for low flying aircraft, the other features the silhouetted image of a piece of string.

The seeming contradiction was first spotted on May 5 by a motorist who then publicly accused Froghill Council’s Highways Department of frivolity.

In a statement made yesterday, Highways Department spokesman Ken Wallaby said: "It is not, nor ever has been, the Council's policy to mislead the public. My department takes its signage responsibilities very seriously and recent insinuations of bureaucratic mischief are entirely without foundation.

”The stretch of road in question is a notorious accident blackspot and this is why we made the decision to sign it as we did.

"Let me reiterate," he added, "that Froghill Council Highways Department would never deliberately string people along.”

In yesterday’s incident, a motorist was lifted bodily from his open top sports car after a piece of twine became wrapped around his neck. The twine was trailing from the cockpit of a light aircraft passing overhead.

The man was carried for some three miles in the direction of Froghill before the twine worked loose, depositing him in an open dung silo at the Mungo Park Road methane processing plant.

The car meanwhile veered through a hedge and careened into a field of sheep, killing one and injuring eight. Six more are being treated for shock.

Police enquiries are ongoing but the Observer can reveal that the other end of the twine was attached to the aircraft's pilot, whose belt had snapped upon take off. The pilot, who is a member of the Froghill Area Cessna Enthusiasts Society (FACES), will be grounded pending investigation.