YOUR readers will have noticed a number of new grey poles rising from Devizes' pavements in recent weeks.

These are the result of the unexpected attentions of Wiltshire County Council Highways Department, which have blessed us with a completely new set of direction signs: over 50 (that's right, 50) in total.

Why so many? Well one reason is that Devizes is one of the few towns in Wiltshire without a traffic relief road, and as we consequently live on several main roads, we get all the signing clutter that goes with main roads.

One small mercy is that the Market Place and Long Street are not part of the main road system, and so they have largely escaped the sheet metal treatment.

Now, I hear you ask, where were the Trust for Devizes and the Guardians when this was being planned?

Well, it was all planned before the recent local elections, and the county council did not think to discuss it with Devizes representatives, despite the existence of a town centre working group set up for precisely this purpose.

It was only when work started that the trust spotted what was going on.

Despite their number, most of the new signs are fortunately no worse than the old ones they are replacing.

However, we are now protesting strongly that two groups of signs in particular should be reconsidered.

These are the four huge brown 'gateway' signs with tourist information, which duplicate the new wooden gateway signs put up only last year, and the new signs around the Green, which will seriously damage the attractive views there.

We hope it is not too late to get the county highways folk to see reason on this matter.

Jeff Ody

Chairman

The Trust for Devizes