A-Boards on the High Street....

I saw a lady out this morning taking photos of  A-boards, you know: those wooden and metal swinging signs that stand outside shops and pubs. Was this a photography project of some sort I wondered to myself as I approached her, realising that I knew her. Perhaps she's building up a portfolio of the most interesting designs to put in her file, I thought. I didn't ask her what she was up to but she offered an explanation anyway. She was sick of seeing the boards the length of the High Street, getting in the way and ruining the look of the whole street. I was in too much of a hurry to get into a debate with her about this subject but felt like saying something and sort of wished I had; but that's the beauty of a blog you see: I can say it now! She had a go at the council and the Highways agency for not doing something about this appalling, asthetically unpleasing, sight, as she described it. It would be unkind for me to name this lady and I'm quite sure she meant very well but I have to say that it would be a bad time for the council to clamp down on this problem. You see A-boards are on the street for one reason only and that is to drum up business, to get the passer by to think: Oh I must go in there or Oh I never realised there was a cafe down there. Without these signs, mine included, many businesses probably would struggle even more to get people to stop and walk those few yards into their shops. I can of course see both sides of the argument, and businesses need to be careful when placing them on the street, but what would she rather see? A-boards along the street or a street full of empty shops for that is the stark choice facing us at the moment. It's not as if they're a new invention is it? They've been around as long as shops and Inns have. Time to get real I think....