Pick 'n' Mix Speed Limits

Kudos to Mr Rendel for pointing it out after all this time. Those certainly aren't new signs. This is definitely cause for a bit of a chuckle, but I can't help noticing that the 50 sign on the right is at a bit of an angle. Isn't it possible that the signs have been tampered with? The location makes that seem a little unlikely, but maybe the signs have simply been spun around.

I suppose honestly I'm not entirely convinced of my own theory, but as one of many explanations for why this might have happened, mistake or otherwise, I feel it's worth using it to justify mentioning that I'm finding it continually irritating that people are constantly so judgmental, overly critical and in some cases outright offensive towards the authorities. It seems to be a common trait amongst politicians, unfortunately, who seem to want to spend far too much time and energy criticising their competition.

It seems like quite a stretch to assign blame on the County Council as a whole, when the reality of the situation - assuming there was no vandalism involved - is that a worker in a high-vis jacket probably just put them up wrong by mistake.

What's more noteworthy is that the mistake went undetected for so long, as Mr Rendel points out. The irony is that it's surely more likely that a local resident would spot and report this issue - as has been the case - and so isn't it almost as valid to accuse locals like Rendel himself, driving by so frequently for years, of failing to notice something so clear and dangerous?

It seems more realistic to admit that in any case the truth is probably that people don't really pay any attention to the numbers painted on the road. I'll admit I've driven that stretch on many occasions and probably never even looked at anything but the reflective sign and never thought to question to validity of the change to 40 when entering a more built up area. Even now, from this picture, I'm not sure if it's the signs or the paint that's wrong.

I certainly don't feel it comes down only to "Council incompetence". That label is surely only applicable to the individual(s) who put the signs up, and those who continually failed to notice it for years. If not vandalism this is just a silly mistake, the likes of which we're all just as likely to make every day.

Maybe some good can come of it, keeping everyone on their toes, but the persistent negativity surely comes at a cost. I believe in upholding standards, but the attitude we seem to want to take to those who make mistakes just doesn't seem constructive. The political system could stand to be overhauled on that principle alone. Listening to the banter in the House of Commons is an embarrassment to the human race, yet somehow never surprises.

The point of an article like this ought to be a bit of a laugh, rather than an opportunity to bash those who *might* be responsible for the mistake.