Chesterfield's "gateway" signs uproar

The new "gateway" signs which have recently appeared at all the gateways into the borough have clearly upset many residents and former residents from much further afield - even from as far away as Australia! These people are furious that the new signs don't feature the borough's universally popular crooked spire at all, whereas the signs they replaced showed it very prominently. Complainants also don't understand why 'Historic Market Town', the borough's other popular attraction, has been omitted from the new signs, whilst it was very prominent on the old ones. Cllr Ray Russell ( Liberal Democrat Council Group Leader ) said ' I very much share these concerns and that's why I spoke against the new signs and voted against their introduction at the Cabinet Meeting that sanctioned them. I just don't see why the old ones needed replacing as they showed our much-loved crooked spire prominently and highlighted our historic market town status. I was also very concerned that a lot of public money was being spent replacing the signs that had themselves only been there for few years and which were perfectly good signs that did the job. Labour Councillors took the decision to spend the money in this way - perhaps they can now explain why they went for the new signs and why they feel that it's sensible to spend our money in this wasteful way."