A council has been criticised after it painted a ‘School Keep Clear’ sign on a residential street despite there being no school there for 15 years.
Residents were left baffled when the bright yellow markings appeared outside their homes on Greendock Street in Longton, Staffordshire, last week.
The area was once home to Edensor Technology College before it merged with another secondary school two-and-a-half miles away, closing its building in 2011.
Homeowners blasted the bungling council for the ‘unbelievable error’ and questioned who will be picking up the bill to rectify the mistake.
Locals also pointed out that workmen had painted the ‘S’ upside down.
They were left furious that Stoke-on-Trent City Council resurfaced a street which ‘didn’t need doing’, while neighbouring roads riddled with potholes were left alone.
Ali Hassan, 72, a former property landlord, who lives feet away from the sign, said residents are now worried they may be given tickets for parking in front of their own houses.
Mr Hassan said: ‘There has not been a school here for 15 years – it moved and merged with another academy.
A ‘School Keep Clear’ sign on a residential street where there has not been a school for 15 years
Ali Hassan outside his house in Longton, Staffordshire, where the road markings have been painted
‘Surely if they would have looked up and seen my house it would be pretty obvious it’s not a school.
‘I now want to know how much it is going to cost to fix and who is going to pay for it? Will it be the taxpayer footing the bill for this?
‘And also, who at the council was responsible in the first place. How do you make such an error?
‘There’s probably a guy sitting in an office behind a computer making lots of money and he doesn’t have an idea what’s going on.’
Mr Hassan was even more confused as he said the building no longer resembles a school.
The building and its football and rugby pitches were demolished and replaced with 193 houses last year.
Mr Hassan added: ‘People are worried they might get a parking fine now for parking on their own street. It’s truly bizarre.
‘Also, they came out and resurfaced a road that didn’t even need resurfacing.
‘There’s loads of potholes on the next street along, but they tarmac over this street and paint a sign for a school that doesn’t exist.
‘It’s crazy and who knows how much it has cost and will now cost to put right.
‘What a waste of paint and money.’
Mr Hassan was doubly confused as he said the building no longer resembles a school
Benjamin Elks, grassroots development manager at the Taxpayers Alliance, said: ‘Local taxpayers will be wondering how a council managed to paint ‘school keep clear’ markings outside a school that disappeared 15 years ago.
‘This is exactly the kind of wasteful bureaucratic blunder that leaves residents tearing their hair out while genuine local problems like potholes are ignored.
‘Stoke-on-Trent Council should remove the markings immediately and explain how such an absurd mistake was ever signed off in the first place.’
Others took to social media to express their dismay and also pointed out the S was upside down.
They said: ‘Also I know this sounds crazy but the S is upside down!!!’
Another added: ‘Didn’t the workers doing it question it when they realised there was no school. You’d expect at least one to notice it.’
A third simply put: ‘Simply unbelievable’ while another added: The stencil painter needs to go back to… School?’
Jane Ashworth, Labour leader at Stoke-on-Trent City Council, has apologised to residents and said the authority would review the issue.
She told the BBC there ‘clearly isn’t a school’ next to the sign and branded the work ‘a mess’.
She added: ‘I’m annoyed for the residents that live there that have been messed about but embarrassed that we made such a mistake.
‘What we will be doing is reviewing how it happened, apologising to the residents, and making it absolutely clear that anybody who parks on what appears to be double yellow line there will not be ticketed.’
Stoke-on-Trent City Council has been contacted for comment.
