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Administrator
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Long Ashton, Bristol
Posts: 10,186
Party: None
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Quote:
I have been following the 'Re-instate Middlesex County Council' thread on your boards and thought your readers might be interested in posting the attached news release on that thread.
There was a news item about the raid on 'Look North' and on BBC Radio Lincolnshire and the 'Lincolnshire Echo' is covering the news story tomorrow.
We plan other raids in North East Lincolnshire, Warwickshire and Lancashire.
I am afraid, being moderate, we regard the demand to reinstate Middlesex as extreme, but there you go, you always get these extremists in politics. The BBC tell me that Russell Grant is a strong advocate of reinstating Middlesex, by the way
Tony Bennett
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Quote:
MEDIA ADVICE – Immediate Thurs., 28 July 2005, 11am
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Seven ‘Welcome to Lincolnshire’ road signs moved form Brigg and Gainsborough areas to Humber Bridge by CountyWatch
“Lincolnshire starts where Yorkshire finishes, not 20 miles INTO phpbb_Lincolnshire” - Tony Bennett, Chairman, CountyWatch
In its second major action to encourage local authorities like Lincolnshire County Council to respect traditional County boundaries and place County ‘welcome’ signs on their correct historical borders, a team of six members of County Watch yesterday dismantled 7 signs saying ‘Welcome to the County of Lincolnshire’. Until yesterday, these signs were placed on ‘A’ and ‘B’ roads around Gainsborough and Brigg, marking the boundary between the unitary authority of North Lincolnshire (whose main town is Scunthorpe) and the administrative unit known - incorrectly - as the County of Lincolnshire).
The CountyWatch team took the signs to the Humber Bridge, where photos were taken of these signs in their correct location. They were then take to a depot of North Lincolnshire Council in Barton-on-Humber. The CountyWatch team then informed Area Highways Manager for Lincolnshire, Mr Eric Jorgensen, where he could collect the signs. Mr Jorgensen expressed sympathy with the aims of CountyWatch, stating that people entering Lincolnshire should be told they were entering Lincolnshire immediately they leave Yorkshire to cross the Humber Bridge, not in the middle of Lincolnshire. He disagreed with CountyWatch’s methods.
BBC ‘Look North’ Part of the day’s action was filmed by BBC ‘Look North’ and a broadcast about the raid was transmitted on their regional programmes last night.
North East Lincolnshire There are several more signs stating ’Welcome to the County of Lincolnshire’ on the border between North East Lincolnshire and the administrative unit of the County of Lincolnshire - south and west of Grimsby. Chairman of CountyWatch Tony Bennett said: “We’ll give the authorities a few weeks to sort things out and place those ‘Welcome to Lincolnshire’ signs where they should be. If they don’t, we’ll remove all the other ones currently on the border with North East Lincolnshire. They give inaccurate information. In 1974, when the government drastically reorganised local government and created the unpopular administrative unit called Humberside, it made the following promise:
‘The new County boundaries are for administrative areas and will not alter the traditional boundaries of Counties, nor is it intended that the loyalties of people living in them will change’.
Said Tony: “We are trying to ensure that Lincolnshire officials keep to that government promise. Many people are attached to their county. We have the Lincolnshire Regiments, Lincolnshire Cricket Club, Lincolnshire sausages and many other institutions covering the whole county, not just a bit of it. The historic County of Lincolnshire did not shrink when Humberside was formed”.
CountyWatch carried out a similar planned raid on signs in mid-Somerset last year, moving signs stating ‘Welcome to the County of Somerset’ to more appropriate places on the borders with Wiltshire and Gloucestershire. The administrative area of the County of Somerset has been shrunk in size by around a third through the creation of the unitary authorities of North Somerset, and Bath and North East Somerset (BANES).
CountyWatch plans similar raids in the near future on signs incorrectly making the current boundary of the historic County of Lancashire and Warwickshire. The administrative area now known as Lancashire is about one-third of the size of its former size in 1974.
NOTES FOR EDITORS:
CountyWatch was formed to combat the gradual destruction of England’s County boundaries. The process of destroying them began with Edward Heath’s 1972 Local Government Act, which removed several Counties from the map of England and drastically altered the boundaries of several others. New County names like ‘Avon’, ‘Cleveland’ and ‘Humberside’ suddenly appeared on the map of England.
Since then, England’s historic Counties have been mangled still further by the creation of so-called ‘unitary’ authorities, which are given the functions of Counties. One County, the Royal County of Berkshire, has been virtually wiped off the map through these processes - either moved INTO phpbb_Oxfordshire or carved up INTO phpbb_‘Unitaries’. The process - already under way - of setting up elected Regional Assemblies across England, will create of many more ‘Unitaries’ and heralds the final destruction of our County boundaries.
Substantial parts of the following Counties have also been carved up by creating ‘Unitaries’ or shifting County boundaries: Bedfordshire, Cheshire, Essex, Hampshire, Huntingdonshire, Westmorland and Yorkshire.
To this end, CountyWatch takes actions designed to remind people and the authorities of where the true historic boundaries of the counties lie. It is not acceptable for people to drive through half of Somerset or Lincolnshire only to come across signs saying: ‘Welcome to Somerset’ or ‘welcome to Lincolnshire.
CountyWatch believes that the authorities which have erected County signs in the wrong places have no legal authority for doing so. Says Tony Bennett: “These signs are unlawfully placed on the highway within the meaning of Section 131(2) of the Highways Act 1980 and under that Section, any member of the public is entitled to remove them”. When we move incorrectly-placed County signs to places on the correct traditional borders, they will inform passing motorists and pedestrians where these historic boundaries lie. Our actions are not theft, nor criminal damage; they are simply carried out to fulfil the intention of the government’s 1974 statement, quoted above.
ENDS
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