Wales’ farcical new blanket 20mph saga has continued after blundering council workers blocked a pensioner’s drive by putting a sign right outside his cottage.
Gordon Stockham, 82, has been unable to use his village cottage’s gated driveway for four months after the go slow sign was dug into the pavement directly in front.
Officials have been erecting new signs or replacing old ones since the Welsh Labour Government introduced the new laws last September.
The Labour-run Monmouthshire county council mistook Mr Stockham’s gate for a barrier when they placed the sign outside his house in Govilon, near Abergavenny.
But despite repeatedly promising his family it would be removed the sign has remained in place.
Mr Stockham’s family contacted local MP, the Conservative’s Wales secretary David TC Davies who said he fears it may not be the only blunder since the ‘absolute shambles’ rollout of the new limit.
Mr Davies said: ‘Thankfully there is an open entrance into the property, so access is not completely cut off. However, the sign must be removed immediately as it fully blocks the gate.
‘The council has apologised for the mistake and told the family it didn’t recognise there was a gateway as it appeared to look the same as the barrier next to it.
‘While I understand the signing company has been instructed to move the sign as soon as possible, we are four months down the line without any resolution and I will be writing to highways to push for immediate action.
‘Perhaps more worrying is the fact the council has admitted its contractor will be going to various locations over the next week or two “correcting mistakes”.
‘This obviously begs the question as to how many other signs have been wrongly put up across Monmouthshire.
‘Not only do we have a very ill-thought-out policy, we are now finding additional money is being wasted to remove and relocate signs the Labour-run council here in Monmouthshire can’t even place correctly. It is staggering.’
Mr Davies has been critical of the Welsh Government over the policy which has cost more than £34million and was opposed by more than 468,000 people.