People living in the small village have said they will be sad to see the signs go
The Spanish signs which appeared in a village near Merseyside(Image: James Maloney/Lancs Live)
Strange Spanish road signs that appeared in a village just outside Merseyside are finally set to be taken down. The signs were put up in Tarleton and were placed there to warn lorry drivers.
But people living in the village are baffled as to why they were put up and who put them there, with residents now sad to see them go due to their effectiveness in reducing the number of HGVs blocking a tiny road. Lancashire County Council said it intends to removed the “unauthorised” signs from Carr Lane, with the council still unclear as to who erected them.
The blue signs tell drivers that the road ahead is a dead-end, with them saying “Camiones No Pasar” which translates to “trucks do not pass” which appears below a traditional sign bearing a red and white T-shaped symbol, Lancs Live reports.
Residents in Tarleton said the warnings had been doing “a good job” at preventing lorries from getting trapped in the narrow lanes around the village as they arrive in large numbers due to extensive salad farms in the area.
“It’s amazing how many HGVs [heavy goods vehicles] come through this village,” said Hayden Latham, Tarleton parish councillor. “To my knowledge, these signs have been up for quite a number of years and they do a very good job at stopping HGVs going down little windy country lanes.”
The signs are to be removed, Lancashire County Council said(Image: James Maloney/Lancs Live)
“Quite a few of them have ended up in ditches – and so, as well as saving the lives of villagers, it’s also saving the heavy goods vehicles,” he added, highlighting how a significant number of driver passing through the village are international.
Local resident Brand McCloud lives in the house closest to the signs, and says they have been there for at least five years. Tarleton, near Preston, is a small farming community, so it’s surprising to see any foreign-language signage here.
But locals suspect that the signs were placed there to help foreign trucks from getting stuck in tight lanes or dead end.
“We don’t know where they came from,” Margaret Carter, a member at Tarleton Bowling Club, said. “But we get so many HGV wagon drivers who come from Spain because of the vegetable farming here.
“Maybe one of the wagon people thought they didn’t want to lose another driver in a ditch, so they organised to put the signs up.”
Barbara Wilson, president of the bowling club, said the signs help the local farming industry. She said: “We think maybe it is to stop wagons getting stranded on narrow roads around the village – but also we have lots of local growers who travel off of the main road to go to the greenhouses.”
Ms Wilson, 79, who has lived in the village for 56 years, said many locals had believed the signs were put up by the council “but maybe it was one of the local growers”.
“We also thought we might have had people in the village who were Spanish.”
A spokesperson for Lancashire County Council said: “We have been made aware of some unauthorised Spanish road signage stating that there are restrictions on access for HGVs on Carr Lane in Tarleton. The signage has not been authorised by us, and is not permitted under UK legislation.
“There are no current restrictions on access for HGVs here. As such, our highway maintenance officers will be removing it.”