Road signs: Line between English and Welsh could make drivers 'less confused'

A Monmouthshire County Council committee heard another suggestion of attaching "little flags" to differentiate between the languages.

Tomos Evans

Wales reporter

Monday 15 July 2024 15:07, UK

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Introducing a line between English and Welsh text on road signs could make drivers "less confused", it has been suggested.聽

A councillor on Monmouthshire County Council, who has dyslexia, said she had difficulty separating both languages on the signs.

Councillor Jane Lucas told the council's performance and overview scrutiny committee that it was "very hard to catch where the English and the Welsh separate".

"I can speak some Welsh, but I'm certainly not a Welsh reader, unless it's 'araf' (slow), in which case I know what that one means," she said.

"A nice, little, thick line through the middle so that we can catch where they separate, and you can read.

"That would help in road safety issues, and it would certainly help everybody getting less confused, and it would certainly help me."

Welsh language officer Nia Roberts said, under Welsh language standards, "the Welsh has to appear before the English so that it's likely to be read first".

Pennie Walker, the council's equalities and Welsh language manager said she would "look into" the issue raised by Cllr Lucas.

Committee chairperson Cllr Alistair Neill said "83% of residents in Monmouthshire have no Welsh".

"Are they actually paying insufficient attention to the English, if it appears after the Welsh?"

Cllr Meirion Howells said he could follow road signs as he was bilingual.

"But most people wouldn't distinguish letters," he said.

"The other point that was made to me was whether or not we could have little flags attached to them, to the Welsh, so it draws the eye instantly rather than looking at letters which look all the same."

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