Lancashire roadsign vandals overstep the boundary (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Lancashire roadsign vandals overstep the boundary

10:00am Friday 30th July 2010 in

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VANDALS have tried to spark off a mini War of the Roses near Burnley by daubing 'Yorkshire' on a Welcome To Lancashire sign.

Yobs targeted one of the boundary signs, between Cliviger and the village of Shore, near Todmorden.

But they shot themselves in the foot as what appears to be the same graffiti artists also daubed ‘Yorkshire’ over a nearby sign marking the boundary of the Calderdale borough of Yorkshire.

Cliviger councillor and Burnley deputy mayor David Heginbotham has vowed to take action to clean up the sign.

Coun Heginbotham said: “It seems like their satellite navigation systems must have been on the blink.

"We've never had anything like this before.”

The councillor said he travels regularly to Hebden Bridge, via Long Causeway, and did not notice any vandalism when he made the journey on Wednesday morning.

But by nightfall the damage had been spotted.

Coun Heginbotham said he would be getting in touch with Lancashire County Council’s highways department to repair the damage.

Coun Ian Cooper, who represents Shore, as part of the Todmorden ward on Calderdale council, is also expected to demand action over their defaced sign, after Coun Heginbotham notified him of the problem.

“The whole area around there, whether it’s Blackshawhead, Jack Bridge, or Colden, likes to think of themselves as Hebden Bridge, even though it’s miles away, because it can put £20,000 on their houses,” said Coun Heginbotham.

Formerly the Lancashire and Yorkshire border ran through the centre of nearby Todmorden, demarcated by the River Calder and Walsden Water.

But since local government reorganisation in 1974 the whole of the town has been classified for administration purposes as West Yorkshire.