No sign of Grantown sign
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THE CASE of a disappearing road sign near to Grantown has left some locals scratching their heads and wondering how much taxpayers’ have been left out of pocket.
The brown tourist road sign with a big bloomer appeared briefly on Monday on the A939 Tomintoul road around 500 yards from the junction with the A95 Aviemore-Keith trunk road.
But by yesterday lunchtime the sign flagging up Grantown as being nine miles away when the Strathspey capital is just one and a half miles from the marker had vanished and all that remained was the two grey posts.
Reuel Chisholm who lives nearby said workers had erected the sign late morning.
"I thought it was rather amusing and the squad of guys sticking it up looked suitably tickled also," he said.
"I realise that its a ‘Brown Tourist Route Sign’, and not necessarily the most direct route to a destination.
"So I wasn’t sure if they were inviting tourists to detour all the way to Nethy Bridge then cross the Spey and return to Grantown along the A95, or go via Cromdale, or circumnavigate the Spey Bridge roundabout 256 times before entering the town.
"If you do follow the ‘Route Signs’ then they take you directly to Grantown. Confusing for tourists? I live on the road and I’m confused.
"I believe Visit Scotland pays for these signs and they are heavily funded by local councils and the government, or in other words the taxpayer.
"It would be interesting to know how much a sign like this costs to manufacture and erect?"
Mr Steve Queen is the owner of the popular Chaplin’s restaurant, ice cream parlour and coffee house on Grantown’s High Street.
He said: "The sign was very misleading and could have put off touring visitors from coming to Grantown if they thought the town was so far away. They might have just turned right at the junction and headed towards Moray.
"It will be interesting to see if the authorities cough up and put up another brown tourist sign but with the right distance to Grantown this time or whether they will just cut their losses – and ours."
The businessman did see the light-hearted side of things, adding: "I know that everything is going up these days but I thought was cost – not miles."
The erection of official brown tourist signs on local roads are the responsibility of the council whereas on trunk roads they are looked after by Transport Scotland.
The sign would have require permission from local authority officials to be erected.
Highland Council said as the "Strathy" went to press yesterday (Tuesday) that they were looking into what had happened both with the mileage to Grantown detailed and the sign itself.
VisitScotland said several years ago when they introduced the new look brown signs that they would likely make more motorists stop off at secondary destinations on the route.
In one presentation available online, tourism chiefs referring to such towns stated: "These will be signed properly for the first time".
According to figures from a couple of years ago, around five to ten per cent of motorists will make diversions as a result of the new brown tourist signs which equates to between an extra £528,000 and £813,000 per year (for five per cent) and £1.1 million and £1.6 million (for ten percent).
That’s if the towns and their distances are signed correctly, of course
