‘Typical council’: residents baffled after ‘keep clear’ sign appears 15 years too late

Hassan Ali says even if the school had still been there, the sign is in the wrong place. Photograph: Neha Gohil/The Guardian

Hassan Ali was on holiday in Budapest when he was contacted by his neighbour about a sign that had been painted on the road directly outside his semi-detached home in Staffordshire.

The bright yellow sign, which read “School: Keep Clear”, was painted on Greendock Street in the early hours of Friday morning, his neighbour informed him – a bewildering update considering there was no school to keep clear of and had not been one for the past 15 years.