INCORRECTLY spelled road signs in Dorset have been slammed as ‘appalling’ by a county councillor.

New fingerposts inst-alled in Tincleton and Piddletrenthide by Dorset County Council have glaring spelling errors which have been explained as an ‘honest mistake’ by the council.

Replacing the signs will now cost taxpayers £200.

Dorset county councillor Malcolm Shakesby has dubbed the mistake as ‘appalling’ and said that it showed a bad example to the county’s children.

He said: “I would have said that this must have been someone that didn’t live in the county because surely anyone making these signs would just look at a map.

“Better than that they could speak to the people in the Roads and Rights of Way committee who deal with these places all the time.

“Perhaps the person that made the signs should be made to pay the money back – I just can’t understand how this can get to the point where they are installed other than the fact that the person didn’t know or live in Dorset.”

He added that before the signs were erected the wording should be checked with a map or with a person that knows the area.

Heating engineer Alec McDonald noticed the signs when he was driving around the county.

The village of Moreton is spelt without the ‘e’ and the sign to Cheselbourne has been spelt as Cheselborn – with two letters missing.

Mr McDonald said: “I drive around the villages a lot through work and I noticed the signs.

“It made me giggle that they were still there even though the villages were spelt wrong – I would have thought that the council would have someone checking the signs before they are put up.”

He added: “I don’t know how they can say it will cost £200 just to change a few letters around.”

Highways manager Rod Turner said that the signs were made by the county council’s internal sign shop and the errors seemed to have been an ‘honest mistake’.

He added: “The regrettable misspelling of place names on finger signposts is attributable to human error.

“As in all operations where workloads are high, unfortunate errors will occur – our endeavour is to try and eliminate these and keep then to a minimum and above all to learn by the mistakes.

“The cost to rectify this mistake will be approximately £100 for each of the two signs and they will be replaced within two weeks.”