Are road closure signs a cruel joke?

Am I the only one thinking that our highways department is getting a cruel pleasure by deliberately misleading motorists with inaccurate road signs?

I could give several examples. For instance, at the entrance to Victoria Road and opposite Curious Brewery, there is a large sign saying ‘road ahead closed’. Many motorists who want to go to Aldi or join the A28 turn back immediately at the traffic lights, thinking Victoria Road is closed. Anyone who may be brave enough to ignore the sign and enter Victoria Road is then confronted by the diversion signposted towards the second road left, Victoria Crescent. The unsuspecting drivers, who by now are convinced that Victoria Road is closed somewhere ahead, turn left to Victoria Crescent only to find a dead end.

The truth is Victoria Road is not closed at all.

It is the first road left (George Street) that is closed and the diversion sign is only for the benefit of residents of that road.

Because of the fact that highways people could not be bothered to place the correct road sign at the entrance to Victoria Road, saying

‘First road left closed’, many hundreds of motorists are being led (driven) down the garden path daily.

I would not have minded if this is an isolated incident but highways seems to be doing this routinely.

For instance, on Friday, September 6, Bad Munstereifel Road was closed due to a burst pipe that brought traffic to standstill in the morning. Highways people were there again misleading the motorists for fun.

They had placed a ‘road ahead closed’ sign facing the drivers who were coming from Park Farm.

Hundreds of poor motorists, thinking that the road ahead to Asda was closed as the sign implied, turned left to Malcolm Sargent Road and tried go to town via Kingsnorth, adding to the terrible traffic congestion on that morning.

Was it beyond the wit of highways managers to put up the correct sign on the roundabout saying ‘road to right is closed’ rather than misleading drivers into thinking that they could not drive ahead to Asda roundabout?

It may be that our highways department has become so poor due to cutbacks that managers can no longer afford accurate signs. On the other hand, they may be deliberately having fun watching frustrated motorists making pointless detours. Devsiri P Hewavidana

Park Farm