The government has put up signs on posts around the capital without the permission of Douglas Council which owns them.

Councillor Ritchie McNicholl said that allowing the Department of Infrastructure to use council-owned posts to attach its signs, including speed limit signs and bus stops without paying has continued because the local authority had allowed it.

Mr McNicholl said: ’Government has put up its signs without our permission and without payment.

’We have a policy for charging for signs on posts and to me, this is the exact same. We allow this and what is needed is for us to say no.’

It was noted on the council agenda that in 2018, the DoI was asked by the council to carry out an audit of all of the signs it currently has around Douglas.

However, the DoI has said that ’there is no resource to undertake such an audit due to the promenade regeneration scheme’.

Council leader David Christian said that he thinks the government should be allowed to use council-owned posts ’as long as they apply for it’,

Mr Christian also asked for the council to go back to the DoI and ’make the point that an audit needs to be done’ and he even suggested the council should do its own audit.

However, Councillor Falk Horning said that an audit of every council owned post ’would be expensive’ and questioned whether it was a good way to spend ratepayers’ money.

Mr McNicholl responded that the council shouldn’t send someone to check posts, but the DoI should do as it was asked.

He noted that contractors who paint council-owned posts charge to take signs off and put them back on again, whether the local authority owns the sign or not.