PARISH councillors at Tarset and Greystead are working on a new idea to help make the entrance to Tarset more appealing to visitors.

Councillors are proposing to place a new brown tourist sign at the Lanehead Junction, where local businesses currently place their own advertisement signs.

The issue of the confusing signage was discussed at a parish council meeting, where councillors unanimously decided to try to involve local businesses in the creation of a single sign.

Coun. Julian Morrison-Bell said: “The issue of unauthorised signs appearing at the junction has come up at meetings and the general idea of this is to clean up the clutter at the entrance to the village.

“The junction is described as a gateway to the Upper North Tyne, and it is a place where people stop and look, because they have to at a T-junction. But they are less likely to want to look at a lot of billboards obstructing the view of the valley.

“We have had a few residents coming forward to say what a good idea it is, but so far we haven’t had much response from businesses.

“For this to work, businesses in the area would have to all work together.

“It would be a simple brown tourist sign, so very much in keeping with what is traditional for the area.”

As well as making the area tidier, the proposed brown sign would give all businesses fair treatment.

Coun. Morrison-Bell said it would give directions and distances to the businesses involved, without including advertising.

Local businesses that might be interested in being involved with the new signage are asked to contact their local parish councillor.