Road sign problems around Wisbech were sorted in just one day by Cambridgeshire County Council after a former lorry driver cut his head open on a speed camera sign that he says was set too low.

Jim Mcdonald was walking his dog along Cromwell Road when cyclists went past him at speed forcing him to jump out the way - and into the sign.

Along with the speed sign, another had been vandalised and sat too low, while others were facing the wrong way and more were dirty.

Mr Mcdonald said: “About two years ago the path as far as Pets at Home was made a shared walkway and cycle way, the trouble is the path isn’t wide enough for both so when cyclists hammer along there isn’t enough room.

“I jumped out the way but smashed my head on the sign. It split my head open.”

He went back later and measured the height of the sign which is around five feet four inches high, he said.

The injury, which he reported to Cambridgeshire County Council last October, prompted him to look at other signs around the town which he said were too low, dirty, or installed in a confusing way for motorists.

“I was a lorry driver for forty years so I notice signs, it was an important part of my job,” he said.

On one post going along Cromwell Road into town a sign shows that lorries of 7.5 tonne can enter the town but another above it says they cannot.

Another sign in that area, meant to be a 40mph repeater, is set at waist height while a sign in the area of Nestle Purina and Summers Road car park is confusing about lorry weight restrictions.

Other signs are dirty with green slime and at Freedom Bridge the white lines for lanes have not been painted in since the work was carried out.

“I’ve reported this four times but nothing has been done,” he said.

Within less than a day of matters being reported by our newspaper a county council spokesman said workmen had fixed the problems.

Signs were cleaned and those facing the wrong way, which they said had been turned around by vandals, were set in the correct way.

“The speed camera sign has been cleaned but it is not overhanging the path and is fully on the verge so we would ask that cyclists respectfully pass pedestrians along that stretch of road to give each other enough space.”