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Council chiefs in Flintshire have done a sharp u-turn over plans to scrap imperial units at bridge under which European lorry drivers regularly get stuck.

Signs at the Penyffordd bridge had been in both metric and imperial units, but they didn’t match up.

So European lorry drivers who looked at the metric measurements - which said it has a clearance of 4.1m - thought they could fit under it.

But several got stuck, and one Polish HGV driver was even fined over getting his wagon wedged there.

The council had said it was now going to get rid of the old imperial signs altogether, and have corrected metric-only ones.

But after concerns were raised by the British Weights and Measures Association that the change would be illegal, council chiefs said the authority would be putting up new, correct signs in both units.

The council’s highways department told the Daily Post initially it had “surveyed all of the low bridge signs in the County and will be replacing the dual imperial/metric information with metric only notifications.”

But the British Weights and Measures Association said that move was not allowed.

Warwick Cairns, spokesman for the campaign group, said: “They probably think it’s the 21st century and everyone is using metric, but they’re wrong to use it.

“Existing imperial-only signs are allowed, but metric must be alongside imperial on new signs.

“The council have probably misinterpreted the move to metric to mean metric-only.

(Image: Richard Williams)

“You can have metric as a secondary measurement, but imperial has to be there.”

When the Daily Post pointed out the Association’s concerns, the council revised its position.

Steve Jones, Chief Officer Streetscene and Transportation said: “The council has surveyed all of the low bridge signs in the County and will be replacing the dual imperial/metric information with metric only and imperial only signs located side by side. The work will be completed during scheduled maintenance works over the summer period.”

Neil Carney, a retired policeman and transport manager who is also a professional HGV driver competency trainer, said the confusion around the structure on the A5104 could be a particular problem for European drivers.

Mr Carney said European rules limit lorries to a height of 4m, so they should be able to negotiate Penyffordd Bridge as it is signposted as 4.1m high - or 13ft.

But the imperial and the metric don’t tally - and European drivers would automatically refer to metric measurements.

(Image: Richard Williams)

He said: “The sign says there is 13ft clearance under the bridge which is fine. However that only equates to 3.96m and the sign says there is 4.1m clearance.

“That is 14cm difference (almost 6ins) and I let Flintshire County Council know about it two years ago.

“I do courses for transport managers and drivers and when you say 4.1m that means the clearance.

“In Europe the height limit for these vehicles is 4m, so they see 4.1m and think it’s OK - but these drivers are getting caught out.”

A Polish Lorry driver was fined in June 2015 after getting his vehicle stuck under the bridge.

There have been at least three similar incidents since, despite the measurement discrepancy being documented.