THE obstructive presence of A-boards in Ulverston town centre has raised concern among residents and town councillors.

Due to the presence of the boards on the pavement, people are being forced to walk on the road, which is sometimes inaccessible to walkers due to the number of parked cars.

The issue was raised at an Ulverston town council meeting this week, where councillors decided to approach traders in the area and decide on a way to limit the amount of pavement space occupied by advertisements.

Cllr Colin Pickthall said: "My concern has been growing regarding the number of these boards on the pavements.

"Where the pavement is six foot wide it is okay, but where the pavement is narrow, for example at the bottom half of Market Street, they can make it very hard for people with sticks or wheelchairs to get past.

"There is nothing wrong with A-boards in themselves, but I think we need to come up with an advisory policy to limit them that we can give out to traders in the town."

Cllr Janette Jenkinson agreed with Cllr Pickthall, and suggested that the town follow the example of Kendal, which struggled with a similar issue in recent years.

"We should go to traders and ask them to come forward with ideas about what we should do," she said. "We should work to resolve this together.

"This is not just about A-boards, but also about street furniture on the pavement. I think that street furniture adds a certain ambiance to Ulverston that I don't want to lose. We don't want to use an all or nothing approach.

"In Kendal there were lots of complaints about A-boards to the planning committee, so we spoke to the traders. Since then there have been no complaints at all.

"Traders need to be self-policing, and that has worked well in Kendal."

It was decided that a notice would be put out to all of Ulverston's traders in order to facilitate a dialogue over how to limit the number of A-boards occupying the town's pavements.