CountyWatch

CountyWatch is a direct action group in the United Kingdom that was set up in 2004 to remove what they consider to be wrongly placed county boundary signs – i.e. signs that do not mark the historic or ancient county boundaries of England and Wales. Since 2005, Count Nikolai Tolstoy has been a patron of CountyWatch. CountyWatch and its supporters claim to have removed, re-sited or erected 80 county boundary signs in Dorset, County Durham, Greater Manchester, Hampshire, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, North Yorkshire, Somerset and Warwickshire.

A prominent member of the group is Anthony Bennett, a British politician. In May 2002 Bennett was prosecuted for removing 29 metric road signs, claiming they were illegal and that he was preventing the law from being broken. He buried the signs in four locations under bushes. Initially found guilty of theft and criminal damage, his theft conviction was overturned in October 2002 on appeal. The judge stated that "there was no evidence of dishonesty or that he intended to permanently deprive the owners of their signs." His conviction for criminal damage was upheld, but the judge discharged the sentence, which had been 50 hours of community service.

Beliefs

CountyWatch sees the abolition of democratically elected county councils in the UK as part of a long-term project to weaken the constituent nations of Europe, notably the UK, and to concentrate power at two levels: Brussels (the European Commission) and the "regions" within countries. CountyWatch believes in taking direct action within the law to counter aspects of this project.

There have been similar illegal acts before. The former county of Humberside was extremely unpopular with some of its residents. The book ''The Fight for Yorkshire'' by Michael Bradford detailed a series of cases where signs were altered to read "East Riding of Yorkshire" in North Humberside. None of these acts were ever prosecuted and in 1996 the county was abolished.

Direct action

Bedfordshire

In August 2007, CountyWatch took its campaign to Bedfordshire, where, in November 2006, Bedfordshire County Council erected four signs on the main roads on the north, west and south sides out of Luton proclaiming 'Welcome to Bedfordshire'. Luton is the largest town within the historic and ceremonial county of Bedfordshire. Some letter writers still address mail to "Luton Beds". Some organisations based in Luton, such as the University of Bedfordshire, include 'Bedfordshire' as part of their address. In 1996, the Royal Mail stopped using Postal Counties as a method of sorting mail, using instead the post code. However, they have a "flexible addressing policy" whereby historic counties can be used. Luton became a unitary authority on 1 April 1997.
Bedfordshire County Council no longer runs any services in the area covered by Luton Borough Council.

The County Council erected the signs only in November 2006 in a struggle to save Bedfordshire County Council from extinction against rival bids from the Borough of Bedford to become a unitary Borough Council and from Mid Bedfordshire and South Bedfordshire Councils to become another unitary authority, to be called ''Central Bedfordshire''.

The signs were unpopular with some Luton residents, some of whom called the signs "snooty". Bedfordshire County Council responded by saying, "Luton has been a unitary authority since 1997 and is therefore not part of Bedfordshire. In July 2007, the government announced that Bedfordshire County Council would be abolished in 2010.

On 9 August 2007, CountyWatch removed four ''Welcome to Bedfordshire'' signs from Luton, claiming they were misleading to the public. One sign was removed from the B653 to Wheathampstead and re-erected on the A505 near Stopsley in front of a ''Welcome to Luton'' sign. The other three signs were removed from the A6, the A505 and the B579. CountyWatch claimed these were being stored at a secure location and added that the signs would be returned to the County Council if they were re-sited on what CountyWatch deem to be the ''true'' Bedfordshire boundaries. The County Council responded by stating that, "This is absolutely crazy. We are proud of our county and we like to ensure that visitors are given a warm welcome. The signs on the edge of Luton mark the boundaries of their responsibilities and the beginnings of ours."

Berkshire

In April 2006 the group set up "Royal County of Berkshire" signs on the ancient border between Berkshire and Oxfordshire. The signs were quickly removed. The Mayor of Abingdon, once the county town of Berkshire, now administered by Oxfordshire County Council, said "I still get letters addressed to me with Abingdon, Berkshire, and many older people still have allegiances." The Mayor of Wantage, however, noted, "I think Count Tolstoy and his supporters are living in the past. They need to face reality. I know there are many older people in Wantage who still think of themselves as Berkshire people, but the reality is that time has moved on and we can't go backwards." The Mayor of Faringdon said that "Faringdon should stay in Oxfordshire", noting that "when we were in Berkshire, County Hall in Reading was so far away. It's much better for us to get into Oxford."

Dorset and Hampshire border

On 10 November 2005, Tony Bennett removed a Dorset sign from Chewton Bunny at Highcliffe and moved it to its historic location at the original County Gates border between Bournemouth and Poole, claiming that while Bournemouth and neighbouring Christchurch had been administered by Dorset County Council for the past 30 years, they remained historically Hampshire towns.

Durham

In May 2006, CountyWatch announced that it has been contacted by Durham residents who were unhappy that Durham County Council had recently relocated signs from the historic boundary between Durham and Yorkshire and relocated them to the Darlington boundary. It would be travelling around Durham looking to see whether signs were on what it consider to be the correct, true border and would remove County Durham signs from the border with the unitary authority of Darlington to the historic and currently ceremonial border with North Yorkshire on the River Tees on 25 May 2006 and re-erect them on suitable posts along the River Tees.

The BBC
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