Will signs boost trade?

Councillor Vince Settle in St Annes Square, with the St Annes flag design.

The signs will point to four roads off St Annes Square in a bid to attract more trade, and will list the names of businesses on each street.

They are being put in place as part of a wider programme to attract more people into to the town, which also includes plans to erect banners  featuring the town’s flag and the  logos of various businesses from lamp posts.

Coun Vince Settle, from St Annes-on-the-Sea Town Council, is spearheading the project.

“It makes the town centre a more colourful place and more inviting to come into,” he said.

“The centre is very nice to go into already but having  colourful flags and signs up just makes it different from other towns.

“All the shopkeepers who know about it are really enthusiastic and say it adds to the attraction, so we’re hoping to develop more ideas like this.”

The new signs, which are being funded by the town council, will be placed on the corners of the four streets which lead off from St Annes Square.

The exact cost of the signs has not been revealed.

They will be approximately five feet high and made of stainless steel, similar to ones which are already found on the streets of Preston.

New banners have  also been ordered which will hang from lamp posts on St Annes Square, and which will feature designs including the St Annes town flag, the flag of its German twin town Werne, the flag of Lancashire and the emblem of The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment.

The plans have been welcomed by Arnold Sumner, from St Annes Chamber of Trade.

He said: “It’s a tremendous boost.

“It’s going to make the town look so much more exciting.

“They bring vitality into the shopping centre and it’s promoting St Annes as somewhere different to every other town in the country.”

He added: “The signs sound wonderful because those shops that are in  Orchard Road always say they could do with all the signage they could get from St Annes Square, and so do the cafes in Wood Street.

“They’re really looking forward to those signs going in.”

It is hoped the signs and banners will be in place later this summer.