A PROPOSAL to introduce new brown tourist signs around Redditch is to be resubmitted despite being turned down once before.

Redditch Council identified 50 sites as needing new or improved signs and only seven were given the go-ahead by Worcestershire County Council's highway department.

In a report detailing the need for more signs, council officers stressed the town's attractions were notoriously hard to find.

And officers felt the highways department had not taken Redditch's unique road system into account.

Councillor Steve Wheeler said: "As with lots of county issues, you wonder what side they are on.

He added: "For me brown tourist signs are for people who do not know the area."

"If you go to France you will see signs telling you what the town offers."

Councillor Ron Passingham said: "I would support that and I agree that this is one time where Redditch has not been properly considered by the county council."

He added: "In Bromsgrove Road we asked for a sign some time ago indicating Batchley Centre and pool and these were refused.

"But there is a sign in Poplar Road pointing to the shops.

''It probably depends on how the officer was feeling that morning he got up."

In a letter to Redditch Council, the highways unit stressed directional signs must be kept to a minimum to ensure signs required for road safety did not have their message minimised.

And it stated signs should only be used to help people find a location and not for advertising.

Highways partnership unit manager Jim Casey said the department had to comply with the Government's policy of keeping signs to a minimum.

He said: "We are committed to tourism and helping the borough to promote it

But my main consideration is the public's safety."