An Ilkley shop owner was seeing double - and a lot of drivers set a puzzle - after council workmen put up a new school warning sign.

David Tyldsley said the Bradford Council gang dug a hole outside his showroom in Leeds Road and erected the sign to warn drivers that children attending All Saints' First School were likely to be crossing nearby.

With its bright backing boards and lights, the new sign was a vast improvement and much more noticeable than the old one.

The hole, containing both the old and new metal signposts just inches apart, was then filled with rubble to await another council gang who would take the old post away and smooth off the site with tar.

But instead of taking the old sign away the second team just laid tar - leaving both still firmly in place with the old one obscuring drivers' view of the new one.

"It was unbelievable and typical of the local council," said Mr Tyldsley, who owns the Wharfedale Bedrooms store.

He said he asked the workmen whether they were going to take away the old sign, only to receive the reply: "You're the fourth person who has asked us that - it's not our department."

A spokesman for Bradford Council said that the old sign would be taken out within a week.

Mr Tyldsley said he looked forward to meeting the same workmen again.

"They are going to have to dig it out. Then the same guys who came last week are going to have to come back again, take away the old signpost, and refill the hole with tar again."

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