The curse of missing road name signs is a common source of agitation for road users and pedestrians alike, especially when following directions, but now a Suffolk resident has put a new spin on solving the problem....
Leiston resident Doris Long-Kubas has used her crochet skills to create a new sign for the town's Central Road after the previous sign was destroyed four years ago by a car.
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But the creation was an usual step for Doris, who has been doing crochet for 40 years and is more used to creating personalised knitwear for people and designs for the tops of post boxes.
She also knits smaller items for people to discover around Leiston- known as yarn bombing- which are left as acts of kindness, aiming to make people feel happy.
"I was just very annoyed that there wasn't a sign because I have not got satellite navigation and other people could not find Central Road.
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"There were just two posts there. I just worked out what I had to do and put some flowers around it to make it look pretty," Doris added.
But producing the knitted sign took time because she had to work out the distance between the posts so the sign was long enough to fill the gap and how many stitches she could use for the letters in the space provided.
The 67-year-old, who has cooked for rockers The Rolling Stones, has created personalised sweaters for people and has also provided crocheted pieces for funerals.
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However, she was 'surprised' by the attention her work was getting, but grateful for the recognition.
"It is nice to be recognised and it is nice that it makes people happy. It only takes a little to make people smile and it makes me happy," she added.
A spokesperson for East Suffolk Council, which is responsible for road signs, said the authority provided 20 replacement signs annually, which could take four or five weeks to be installed after the previous sign was reported as missing.
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He added: “We’re grateful to Doris for bringing this missing sign to our attention.
“Her creativity not only raised a smile, but also our awareness that the sign has been missing for some time and we will now be working to provide a replacement in due course.
"If Doris’ sign is still in place at that time, we’ll deliver it to the Town Hall for her to collect, should she wish.
“Damaged or missing street name signs can be reported at my.eastsuffolk.gov.uk.”
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