New street nameplates finding their way around North Norfolk

A year-long, £100,000 programme to replace 1000 street nameplate signs across North Norfolk is under way.

A year-long, £100,000 programme to replace 1000 street nameplate signs across North Norfolk is under way.

The first phase of the programme has seen new, hard-wearing street nameplates installed at Fakenham and North Walsham (around 60 signs in each town). Cromer and Sheringham will follow in the next six weeks, with Holt, Stalham and Wells-next-the-Sea after that.

Meanwhile, North Norfolk’s rural parishes are also being surveyed — at a rate of 10 a month — to find out what signs are missing, damaged or in need of replacement, whether through vandalism, accidents or signs reaching the end of their working lifetimes. The replacement signs in rural parishes will all be in place by the end of the financial year.

Through these surveys, North Norfolk District Council is also building an inventory of street nameplates for the first time, so it does not have to rely, in future, only on customers calling to make the council aware of damaged or missing signs. Also, the council is identifying areas that have never had signs and listing them for signage in future.

The council has dealt with signage on a priority basis in the past, but this led to a backlog of work, so earlier this year the council agreed to tackle the work as a major capital project.

The new signs are made from recycled materials by G and G Signs, a leading national supplier of long-lasting nameplates.

Councillor Eric Seward, Cabinet Member for Environmental Services, said: “Street name signs matter a great deal, for the sake of a neighbourhood’s identity as well as the logistics of finding a place — which is vital for the emergency services, postal deliveries, utilities, and anyone else who needs to know they are in the right place. So we want this programme to make an impact in every community.”

The project is due to finish by the end of the financial year, in March 2010. It is being carried out in partnership with Norfolk County Council, which has contributed £5000 towards the cost of new signs, because NNDC aims to include ‘no through road’ symbols on appropriate nameplates, meaning separate signposts are not needed and some signage clutter can be removed from our streets.

People’s reports of damaged or missing street nameplate will help inform the surveys currently under way, and will continue to be useful for ongoing work once this project is complete. Anyone wanting to report a problem with a nameplate sign is asked to email streetsign.maintenance@north-norfolk.gov.uk

• A schedule for the programme, for finding out when each parish will get its signs, will be published later this week at www.northnorfolk.org/planning/5251.asp

ENDS