A cyclist is questioning the council’s pride in Ashford after discovering inaccurate and dirty signs strewn across the borough.

Kennington resident Ted Prangnell says he has been battling against the incorrect direction signs for years.

The frustrated retired engineer even goes as far as placing adhesive arrows on the signs to correct them.

He has photographed broken and grubby signs in Torrington Road, Little Burton Farm estate, Magazine Road, Queens Road and across Kennington.

“Where is the pride in our town?” he said. “Apart from my own observations, two or three visitors have drawn my attention to the amount of litter, except in the town centre, and the general feeling of being unkempt.

“The resurrected sign at Spearpoint is dirty, and pointing in the wrong direction.

“When they put it back up, why didn’t they make sure it was pointing in the right direction. And maybe clean it?

“I dare say that if I were to look more widely, I would find more errors and more dirty signs.

“Such grotty signs do nothing to attract visitors, nor form a good impression to those that do venture into our town.

“Those who claim to be proud of our town must walk about with their eyes half-shut, or perhaps they find that litter and grubby signs are acceptable. I don’t.”

Mr Prangnell, a keen cyclist, is now calling on the authorities to clean up their act – and the signs.

He said: “When I was a council employee we had a very active general inspector, who would see to it that sites such as these are attended to, and fairly quickly.

“I am lucky enough to have travelled in some 15 different countries, visiting many beautiful towns and cities, so I feel I can make objective comparisons.

“Poor Ashford has suffered a lot since the Second World War, most of it at the hands of the planners.

"Grubby signs indicate the lack of pride of our residents, but the litter is the fault of our population who are just bone lazy, or they don’t care, or both.”

An Ashford Borough Council spokesman said: “The borough council is only responsible for street nameplates and signs indicating the existence of parking and waiting restrictions. The county council is responsible for all other traffic signs.

“Signs relating to parking and waiting restrictions that need attention are generally reported by our civil enforcement officers as they see them when patrolling.

“With regards to dirty or defective street nameplates, we are more reliant on reports from the general public.

"In addition, our T-CAT (Town Centre Action Team) has been working through the centre of town cleaning up signs and generally sprucing up the area since the autumn of last year.”