A FAULTY ‘car park full’ sign may have kept visitors away from Dartmouth over what should have been a busy festive period.

A problem with the electronic display board on North Embank­ment has incorrectly directed motorists away from the town centre car park in Mayor’s Avenue – even when plenty of spaces were available.

Now there are some calls for the board to be removed completely.

Paul Reach, chairman of the town business forum, said the incorrect signs were showing for the last two weeks.

‘And I am sure, as a direct result, they have had a negative impact on our visitor numbers,’ he said.

‘I raised this issue some two weeks ago with our local authority representatives, together with Angie Cairns-Sharp, chairwoman of the TIC, who shared my concerns.

‘Can I urge those responsible to make sure that this can never happen again?

‘I am sure the signs were originally well intentioned but this is not the first time they have shown misleading information, so please don’t let them exacerbate the problem they were intended to solve.’

County and district councillor Jonathan Hawkins said the sign was put up many years ago with Section 106 funding.

‘But if the town feels it is not of benefit and goes wrong too often rather than providing a good service, perhaps we should take it out.’

Cllr Robin Springett said there were 46 empty spaces one day when the sign was showing car park full.

‘It is a continuing problem,’ he said. ‘We are driving people out of this town.

‘I would go along with an axe and lay them [the signs] flat,’ he said.

‘The electronics are old and not working and need replacing. The signs are a waste of time and a bother to everybody.’

Cllr Gina Coles said nobody took any notice of them.

But Cllr Francis Hawke said he couldn’t agree with throwing away thousands of pounds that had been spent on the signs but they needed to give up to date information.

Mr Reach added: ‘It’s been a tough Christmas and certainly the signs have not helped. But rather than throw away the investment, the problem needs to be overcome.’

A South Hams Council spokes­man said: ‘We are aware of an issue with some car parking signs in Dartmouth which are displaying the ‘car parks are full’ message when there are spaces available.

‘We have alerted Devon County Council who manage the signs, and they are working to solve the problem. The sign located on the North Embankment has now been fixed and is working correctly.

‘In the meantime, we are feeding back the number of spaces manually, so the signs can be updated, and we will be monitoring the signs and car parks closely.’