Council warning sign littered with spilling mistooks (From Epsom Guardian)
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Worcester Park council warning sign littered with spelling mistakes
9:50am Tuesday 11th August 2009 in News By Kevin Barnes
Worcester Park council warning sign littered with spelling mistakes
Careless council contractors failed to mind their language at the weekend as two spelling errors appeared on a road sign in Worcester Park.
Literate Lindsay Road residents were left struggling to decipher the message: “Due to mechanical failer your road will be reserviced at a later date.”
Peter Sharpe, who took a photograph of the offending sign on Saturday, said: “Quality people we have working for us, don’t you think?”
This week Sutton Council fell short of apologising for the public illiteracy, despite the poor example it may have set to schoolchildren.
A spokesman said: “This sign was put up by our contractor as soon as they realised they would be unable to carry out the planned work.
“The contractor wanted to give residents as much warning as possible due to the inconvenience that suspended parking causes.
“While the spelling mistakes are unfortunate, the immediate priority was to let people in the area know what was happening.”
The council sent follow-up letters explaining the situation to each householder, but no mention was made of the embarrassing misspellings.
Local people had previously complained about the expense of resurfacing work when Lindsay Road appeared to be in an excellent condition.
Comments(17)
adrianshort
says...
10:29am Tue 11 Aug 09
worcesterparkblog
says...
6:30pm Tue 11 Aug 09
Congratulations on being literate and well educated, but why use your position to belittle the person who wrote this sign?
It wasn't an official council sign, it was just a road worker being helpful by scribbling a not to let residents know that the roadworks had been postponed at short notice. If this had been an official council-approved sign ordered by office-based officials who should know better then you would have a point, but why attack this poor contractor?
Your suggestion that 'literate residents' struggled to decipher the sign is idiotic. It is perfectly clear what he meant, even if it the note was not perfectly spelled.
Are you really so apalled that a road contractor does not have perfect spelling that you have to make it into a story for your paper?
Your suggestion that Sutton Council should apologise for the spelling mistakes is ludicrous. I think it is YOU should be apologising to the contractor for the unwarranted and unashamedly arrogant attack on him.
ahiorns
says...
8:26pm Tue 11 Aug 09
'Careless council contractors failed to mind their language at the weekend as two spelling errors appeared on a road sign in Worcester Park.''
I find it hard to believe that your newspaper has sunk so low as to report utter nonsense such as this. Its laughable. Its not even worth commenting on, let alone taking up space in a *previously* reputable journal.
Its petty at best. These people are employed to resurface the road, not school everyone's children in English and Grammar! It would take a second for a responsible parent to correct their childrens interpretation of the mistake. And thats even if a child noticed, and lets be honest, how many school children read the small print on road signs with such attention to detail as to scrutinise the language used???
The main point is that the residents were kept well informed, and as such the employee who wrote the sign should be praised, not belittled in such a snobbish fashion.
And to the people who genuinely ''were left struggling to decipher the message'' then shame on you, i read it in a flash when i drove around the roundabout on Browning avenue and understood it perfectly.
What a joke.
And by the way, the security word for me to write this comment is ''deep-blow'' so hows that for setting a bad example for children!
vintage55
says...
1:22am Wed 12 Aug 09
SmokinJo
says...
1:26am Wed 12 Aug 09
ric
says...
9:26am Wed 12 Aug 09
ahiorns
says...
9:34am Wed 12 Aug 09
at-the-general-prole
taria way, isnt, and definately warrants these comments. Thanks for your valuable input on the topic anyway vintage.
I hope not
says...
9:44am Wed 12 Aug 09
Jacqui
says...
10:01am Wed 12 Aug 09
vintage55
says...
12:22pm Wed 12 Aug 09
Stay behind after school and write out 100 times the correct spelling of DEFINITELY.
DB
says...
12:56pm Wed 12 Aug 09
To be honest, I would rather the contractors resurfacing roads were good at resurfacing roads. I don't really mind if a temporary sign is littered with spelling mistakes as long as it can be understood.
It is a shame that the basic standard of spelling is not better than it is, but does it really matter for someone whose skillset is elsewhere?
Nayhead
says...
1:30pm Wed 12 Aug 09
ahiorns
says...
2:20pm Wed 12 Aug 09
Fred1
says...
2:48pm Wed 12 Aug 09
.
Sure, it's pedantic - but I'd much rather have newspaper articles - and the comment spots that follow them - filled with pedantry, rather than constantly going on about ASBO's, drugs, knives, and how much of a moral decline is supposed to be happening among our teenage brothers and sisters.
.
However - setting a bad example for schoolchildren? Excuse me? Right - yeah - like a wise man (or was it a woman?) once said, "Won't somebody PLLEEEEASE think of the children!"
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When the tired old "won't somebody please think of the children" cliche gets trotted out in support of condemnation of something so utterly trivial as a spelling mistake on a temporary public street sign, it's no wonder that the low-grade parts of the media industry that treat "celebrity gossip" as "news" (and the brainwashed fools that lap it all up) have got things so out of kilter on their concept of justice for the accused.
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Rant over. Full marks to the guy who spotted it, though, but "poor example ... to schoolchildren" possibly stretching a point.
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Indeed - look at it this way. What is the point of kids learning how to spell correctly, if those who *can* spell correctly are doomed to a short life of working in highly dangerous transport infrastructure construction projects? The fact that this sign had a spelling mistake in it demonstrates to kids that that's not how it actually it. Think about it.
Fred1
says...
2:50pm Wed 12 Aug 09
"not how it actually it" - supposed to read "not how it actually is".
Blah.
Still - think about it anyway. Do you really want your kids to be like *me*? Heaven forbid! ;)
vintage55
says...
4:46pm Wed 12 Aug 09
Angela M says...
10:07am Tue 11 Aug 09