AN elderly man’s driveway has been blocked after a 20mph sign was erected outside his home in a council blunder.

Monmouthshire County Council wrongly installed the sign as part of Wales’ new 20mph limit on the pavement in Church Lane, Govilon – directly across the gated driveway to Gordon Stockham’s cottage.

His bewildered daughter Debbie Gordon asked for the obstacle to be removed four months ago. But with no resolution in sight, despite assurances the council is “working on the matter”, she has now enlisted the support of Monmouth MP David Davies.

Mr Davies said: “Thankfully there is an open entrance into the property, so access is not completely cut off. However, the sign must be removed immediately as it fully blocks the gate.

“The council has apologised for the mistake and told the family it didn’t recognise there was a gateway as it appeared to look the same as the barrier next to it.

“While I understand the signing company has been instructed to move the sign as soon as possible, we are four months down the line without any resolution and I will be writing to highways to push for immediate action.

“Perhaps more worrying is the fact the council has admitted its contractor will be going to various locations over the next week or two “correcting mistakes”. This obviously begs the question as to how many other signs have been wrongly put up across Monmouthshire.”

The Welsh Labour Government pressed ahead with reducing the default speed limit from 30mph to 20mph – which came into force across Wales on 17 September 2023–despite its own impact assessment warning it could cost £4.5bn to the economy.

“As the weeks go on, it is becoming ever clear that Labour’s disastrous 20mph speed limit roll-out has been an absolute shambles,” added Mr Davies.

“Not only do we have a very ill-thought-out policy, we are now finding additional money is being wasted to remove and relocate signs the Labour-run council here in Monmouthshire can’t even place correctly. It is staggering.”