Joker adjusts sign which points out new housing

Residents of Cheddar may have noticed signs to Jacobs Meadow,directing them to the new development on Hellier's Lane.

The site being built at Hellier's Lane will be given the roadname Hythe Wood, a name chosen by the Cheddar Parish Council. JacobsMeadow is a marketing name that has been brought in by First StepHomes.

Denise Cataldo, sales manager for First Step Homes, said: "JacobsMeadow is purely a marketing name for the 21 units we are buildingin order to differentiate our homes from the other units that arebeing marketed by the Guinness Trust.

"Once the development has been sold, then all our marketing signswill come down and the name Jacobs Meadow will no longer be in use."

However, one practical joker decided to give one of the signs amakeover. They removed the Jacobs Meadow name plate before replacingit with the word "Hell".

Since this incident, several of the signs have been removed,something that was not agreed with First Step Homes.

Denise Cataldo said: "We have informed the AA that these signshave been removed without authorisation or consent from eitherthemselves or First Step Homes, therefore as we have entered into acontract for these signs to be displayed we have instructed the AAto reinstate these as soon as possible."

A spokesman for Somerset County Council said: "We, as highwayauthority, may approve various signs on the highway subject tocertain conditions. Temporary signs to housing developments areapproved, primarily to direct construction traffic and are notpermitted for advertising purposes.

"Approval for some signs at the Jacobs Meadow development wasapproved in February this year, on a six-month basis which will nowbe running out. As the construction for this site is substantiallycomplete, approval will not be given for the signs to remain.

"We have always had a good relationship with the AA whomanufactured these signs, but recently we were made aware that somesigns were not erected in accordance with our usual conditions.

"Signs which were overhanging the carriageway, too low forpedestrian headroom, sited on give-way signs poles, which is notpermitted, were removed for safety reasons."

Hythe Wood was the name for the area listed on the 1837 churchtithe map, adding a historic legitimacy to the name. The TitheCommutation Act of 1836 amended a year later established a processby which tithes could be converted to money payments in an era whenchurch parishes still collected taxes. This required the drawing ofan accurate map showing all the land in the parish.

The word hythe derives from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning haven orlanding place, linking the low lying area of Hythe Wood to a timewhen the levels were flooded during the Middle Ages.