A cash-strapped council has made efforts to cover a 'School Keep Clear' sign on a residential road where no school has existed for 15 years. Locals were left baffled when the bright yellow markings appeared outside their houses on Greendock Street in Longton, Staffordshire, last week.
Background of the Error
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. Stoke-on-Trent City Council, which has forecasted a £6.3 million deficit for the 2025-26 financial year, is now dealing with the fallout after resurfacing the street, which residents say 'didn't need doing.'
Residents' Reactions
Homeowners have blasted the local authority 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. Ali Hassan, 72, a former property landlord who lives feet away from the sign, said residents were worried they may be given tickets for parking in front of their own houses after the arrival of the sign.
Mr Hassan said: 'There has not been a school here for 15 years - it moved and merged with another academy. 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?'
Mr Hassan added that the property no longer resembles a school. The building and its football and rugby pitches were demolished and replaced with 193 houses last year.
Council's Response
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.'
Jane Ashworth, Labour leader at Stoke-on-Trent City Council, apologised to residents and said the authority would review the issue. She said there 'clearly isn't a school' next to the sign and branded the work 'a mess', adding: '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.
