Mystery of town sign's missing letters is over

The riddle of how several letters vanished from a display of a town's name in Leicestershire has been solved.

Wigston became home to Hollywood-style signage last year in a move which cost £10,500, but on Wednesday, Oadby, Wigston and Harborough MP Neil O'Brien posted a picture online that showed the sign was missing the letters G and O.

Officials from Oadby and Wigston Borough Council said letters were not stolen but instead had been "knocked down" by "vandals".

They collapsed letters were then removed by the authority, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Conservative MP O'Brien said: "Oh dear – I thought this was a bad use of taxpayers' money – but the stupid vandalism makes it even worse."

A spokesperson for the Liberal Democrat-controlled council said: "We are currently looking into the costs of getting them re-installed, but we don't have a figure yet.

"However, the sign is covered by our insurance and this is the route that we will be going down in the first instance."

When the sign was revealed last year, the borough council made clear the signage was funded by the government "from a pot specifically for town centre improvements" amid calls they had spent thousands themselves on it.

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