NEW signs at the entrances to Maldon have been installed after a five year long battle over three words.

Maldon District Council has finally been given approval for the signs to reinstate the signs across the town.

It is the first time the signs have been in place in more than 50 years.

But it took the council six years to get approval for the sign after a dis- agreement with the Department for Transport over the phrase Former Royal Borough.

Maldon was named in the Domesday Book and councillors had hoped to include reference to it being a Royal Borough.

But highways officials told the council there were too many words on the sign and also disputed calls for it to read Town of Maldon.

Former council chairman Robert Long, who designed the original sign in 2010, said: “I was prepared to take them round to show them some of the really cluttered signs.

“There is one in Tiptree and Colchester Council has got everything on it except what they had for dinner.

“They said it should just say Maldon but the whole district is called Maldon – how are they going to know they are coming into the town and not the district.”

Mr Long also involved Maldon MP John Whittingdale in the saga.

He said: “It was four years before it got anywhere.

“We wanted both the charter and royal borough – the borough dates back to Saxon times.”

Mr Long thanked director of customer and community at Maldon District Council Richard Holmes, for persevering with the signs.

The signs are being installed on The Causeway, Mundon Road, Fam- bridge Road, the A414 and London Road.

Essex Highways and the Department for Transport said they were not responsible for the removal of the words or the hold up.

However, a letter sent from under-secretary of state Robert Goodwill to Mr Long in 2014 said: “By omitting the wording ‘’former royal borough’”

the information on the sign will be reduced and road users will be more readily able to assimilate this.

“As you are aware from previous correspondence with this Department, the description of “Town of ” is not prescribed for use on boundary signs.

“However, officials stand ready to issue and authorisation which will include this addition.”