Friday 19 January 2007

North Riding signs in place




Pictured are 3 of 7 North Riding of Yorkshire boundary signs recently erected on the roads leading into the Borough of Redcar & Cleveland.

Sign 1 (bottom) - On Stokesley Road between Great Ayton and Guisborough
Sign 2 (middle) - On the A1085 Trunk Road on the boundary with Middlesbrough
Sign 3 (top) - On Normanby Road at Ormesby with Chair of the Ridings Society Cllr Chris Abbott in pic

The seven signs were erected at no cost to the Borough of Redcar & Cleveland. They were paid for with a donation of £1150 from the Yorkshire Ridings Society.

Chairman of the Yorkshire Ridings Society and Cabinet member for Housing and Neighbourhood Renewal on Redcar and Cleveland Council, Cllr Chris Abbott said:

"We are delighted that at last our real county is shown on road signs in our area.

"The Coalition running Redcar & Cleveland has promoted the area as part of Yorkshire ever since it took control in May 2003. In July of that year the Council made Yorkshire part of its postal address and introduced an annual Yorkshire Day festival that has proved very successful. The Council also joined the Yorkshire Tourist Board.

"Promoting the area as part of Yorkshire keeps our link with history and heritage alive. It is quite separate from the areas invented for local government administration, economic development and regional planning. These areas can change at any time but Yorkshire is one of England's 39 Counties, which have been part of our geography for more than 1000 years. Real Counties should appear on maps alongside our administrative areas.

"The Ridings Society campaigns for recognition that the three Ridings of Yorkshire still exist for all cultural, ceremonial, sporting and postal purposes. Local government changes in recent years have not affected the North Riding of Yorkshire. The 1972 Local Government Act abolished only North Riding County Council and not the North Riding.

"Government statements made at the time and often repeated since declared that "the changes were for local government purposes only, for all other purposes Yorkshire is still Yorkshire."

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