From Wonko's World:
It’s my birthday on Saturday and I’m off work tomorrow so, as tradition dictates, I popped to a nearby Chavda to buy some cakes and biscuits.
As I was driving back through some roadworks I noticed the roadsigns were all written in bloody Welsh with English translations underneath. Welsh. In Telford, which is about 40 miles as the crow flies from the nearest point of the Welsh border.
I phoned the council and they said that as long as it’d got English on there and it was legible it’s fine. I pointed out that if you’re reading a road sign and the first line is foreign it means you’ve got to scan the sign for the English which takes longer and hence makes the signs less safe. The disinterest went off the disinterest-o-meter.
This strikes me as being positively dangerous: road safety signs in England with Welsh as the primary language? There are tourists and newcomers here who are not even that familiar with English and the signs could be very confusing when people are driving at night in wintery conditions...
And just how many people in England speak and read Welsh? Our road safety signs need to be ABSOLUTELY CLEAR. What the hell’s going on?
Yup, nearly totalled my Saab turbo and entire family in the early '90's going around a bend on a winding hillside road in mid Wales.
ReplyDeleteWe came up on a left hand bend - a very temporary tatty red sign positioned with sand bags - including some which were situated just in front of the bottom half of the sign - thus covering up the English translation of the Welsh phrase which was prominently displayed atop the sign..
As we rounded the bend, wondering what those Welsh words actually meant, we almost went straight into a tractor trimming the hedge about 30 yards after the bend.... Just missed the tractor and the oncoming traffic, but had to make a stop to remonstrate with the road gang, teaching them some new Anglo Saxon words - and also to change my underwear.....