VISITORS to a York cul-de-sac could be forgiven for struggling to find their way after City of York Council installed a sign with the wrong street name on it.

Retired railway engineer Dave Bean, 66, and his wife Janet have lived in Cherry Garth, off Bad Bargain Lane, for about 30 years. They had previously contacted the authority to request the sign be tidied up or replaced.

Dave said: “Over the years I looked at the sign and thought I must write to the council and tell them it’s a right mess and always overgrown with weeds.

“One day, lo and behold, it was replaced. I cycled past it a few times and didn’t notice, but my wife said: ‘Did you see they’ve got the name wrong?’”

On closer inspection, the couple noticed the sign read “Worcester Drive (cul-de-sac) leading to Cox Lea Grove and Cherry Drive”. But their street has always been called Cherry Garth.

Dave said: “We noticed it in the middle of last week. We get a lot of things delivered, and we’ve not noticed any problems since it happened, but we thought it needed to be rectified.”

The couple contacted City of York Council to alert the authority to the problem, but said they had not yet been given a timescale for the replacement.

Dave said: “I bet it’s cost a lot, it’s a big sign and embossed metal, so it’s quite a nice sign. We thought it would be fun to get a picture of my twin granddaughters to go down there and put a sticky sign over the error to help people find where they were going.

“The council laughed and said it’s crazy, someone’s made a gaffe, and someone will sort it out for us.”

A spokeswoman for City of York Council said the signs arrived pre- written.

She said they cost about £180 and, although the council installed the signs, the fault lay with the manufacturer.

The spokeswoman said: “The sign was ordered correctly with the manufacturers, but unfortunately the wrong sign was sent by mistake.

“There is a new sign on its way and this will be installed at no additional cost to the authority.”