SHOPKEEPERS on a Darwen street have taken dramatic action to demonstrate their anger against council rules on pavement advertising.

Business owners from Bridge Street have hoisted a model of a soldier on to a street light because they say the council is strangling their trade.

The idea to stage the hanging came from Peter Simpson, who runs a photographic and beauty shop in the street.

He said: "We advertise on an A-board, other shopkeepers have books, carpets and other signs of advertisement.

"The army and navy store has had a model soldier outside for as long as anyone can remember.

"Now the council says we have to take everything inside because we are not allowed to advertise on a public highway. They are simply strangling our trade.

"We think the pavement signs and other items give Bridge Street some character.

"The street is pedestrianised and the signs made it look like a working street - now it just looks as if nothing is open.

"We might as well build a brick wall across the street and say it is closed."

A spokesman for Blackburn with Darwen Council said: "This is government policy and we are simply enforcing it.

"It is a policy which protects people who suffer from blindness or who are partially sighted."

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