CAMPAIGNERS who have threatened to uproot the county's Welcome to Lancashire signs were today warned: "You will be prosecuted."

Lancashire County Council pledged to take action after members of CountyWatch, a group formed to protect England's traditional county boundaries, gave the authority until October 17 to take down the signs.

If their demands are not met they say they will remove the signs themselves, as they did with 16 signs from Lincolnshire last month and during a similar 'raid' in mid-Somerset last year.

The group, headed by Essex solicitor Tony Bennett, 58, has vowed to take down signs on the outskirts of Blackburn and other areas, including Southport, Ormskirk, and Blackpool, and place them on the steps of County Hall in Preston as an act of defiance.

Despite being in the heart of Lancashire, Blackburn with Darwen has around six Welcome to Lancashire signs on roads leading out of the borough because it is a unitary authority and not governed by County Hall.

A spokesman for Lancashire County Council said: "Any sign that is pulled down amounts to vandalism and we will deal with these vandals by reporting them to the police and taking them through the courts.

"We are not going to lose too much sleep over the matter but we will not let it go if any action is taken by CountyWatch."

But Mr Bennett said: "We do not intend to damage the signs or keep them, they will be returned to the council in their original state.

"Lancashire does not begin where they say it begins and the only place to put a welcome to Lancashire sign is on the truly historic border.

"We will be carrying out these raids in Lancashire in broad daylight and have informed the county council we will be removing them so there is nothing secret about it."

He said police took no action against them during previous raids.

The group, which has eight members, was justifying its decision to remove the signs under section 131 of the Highways Act 1980.

That gives people who remove signs a defence against the law the sign is "not lawfully placed on the highway".

"This campaign is founded on the fact that these signs are not legally placed on the highway," added Mr Bennett.