IT is saddening to see that City of York Council has been pressed into adding ugly carbuncles to perfectly useful footpath signs.

While Coun Brian Watson presumably measures his walks with 176 yard (1/10 mile) 'click' on his car's odometer, most experienced walkers use Ordnance Survey maps.

OS maps have been based on kilometre grid and metric grid references since the Second World War. Metric distances on signs help you to read your map, while using miles is confusing.

What a shame that 40 years after the adoption of the metric system was announced in Parliament, we continue to undermine what is taught in schools. Teaching metric in the classroom while promoting imperial outside muddles children.

Roddy Urquhart,

Pitts Lane, Andover.

Updated: 10:23 Wednesday, August 24, 2005