There are signs of trouble ahead for a man involved in the disappearance of Blackpool's controversial 'Welcome to Lancashire' road signs.

Freelance journalist and rights adviser, Anthony Bennett from Essex, says he's been 'invited to attend' Blackburn police station next week after Lancashire County Council complained that more than 30 of its signs had been swiped, including those on the Blackpool boundaries.

Pressure group CountyWatch, of which the 54-year-old is a member, swooped on the road signs this week, leaving only the poles by the roadside. The signs themselves were gathered together and left at Blacko on the outskirts of Lancashire, for the county council to collect.

Mr Bennett said the group has no members in the Blackpool area. But he said there were backers in other groups, such as the Friends of Real Lancashire.

He said this week's hit was to highlight the 'gradual dismemberment' of Lancashire, adding that the road signs were 'misleading' because Blackpool is still part of Lancashire geographically, if not administratively.

Speaking exclusively to The Citizen, Mr Bennett said: "What we would like to see is 'welcome to Lancashire' signs when people enter the real Lancashire, for example when they go over the true border between Yorkshire and Lancashire, not in the middle of Lancashire, and certainly not as you leave Blackpool, which is in the middle of the county. It's bizarre.

"We would like to see those signs we took down put on the correct Lancashire borders, the true historic borders that have been there for nearly 1,000 years."

CountyWatch would also be 'comfortable with signs that say 'welcome to the administrative area known as Lancashire County Council', he said.

Mr Bennett told The Citizen he had been 'involved in the removal of signs', but said: "I could exercise my right to be interviewed down in Harlow but I'm happy to help the police. I don't think that it's a police matter."

He admitted CountyWatch's actions could be described as pointless or vandalism. "A lot of people would say 'who cares?', and I would have to accept that. However, I think there are many who do care.

"Just because Blackpool is a unitary authority, it doesn't mean it isn't still part of the true county of Lancashire."

But Lancashire County Council promised tough action against the CountyWatch campaigners.

"It's vandalism like we get all the time, just a bit more organised," stormed Coun Cllr Tony Martin, the county council's man in charge of road signs. "It's just like somebody throwing a pot of paint over a bus shelter.

"Which boundaries are they marking out? The boundaries as they were under John O'Gaunt? The boundaries from the War of the Roses? The boundaries from the 1949 reorganisation that lost us Liverpool and Manchester? The boundaries from 1974 when we lost Southport? Lancashire has been chipped away at for years.

"I'm told that 1,000 years ago we were all part of Northumberland -- perhaps they should go and mark out their boundaries?

"Theses signs will be put back into place as soon as the police are finished with them. County taxpayers will pay not one penny towards the repairs -- we will claim every penny back as part of our costs at the magistrates."

And he dismissed concerns about the signs raised by Blackpool residents who consider themselves 'Proud Lancastrians.'

"We don't provide libraries, social services, education or highways in Blackpool," said Cllr Martin: "We haven't since Blackpool became a unitary authority back in 1998."