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The removal of placards supporting a health campaign has cost Waverley Borough Council more than £500, it has been revealed.

The People’s NHS, which has been campaigning nationally, set up estate agent-style boards in the front gardens of homes throughout Farncombe in February.

The signs read ‘Cameron and Hunt, Stop the Sale’, a reference to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership deal, which has led to claims that it will see the NHS be privatised.

Residents who placed the signs on their land received hand-delivered letters on January 28 from Matthew Evans, head of planning services for the borough council, stating that they constituted illegal advertising.

People were advised to remove the signs and told that they would be taken down by council employees if they were still in place the following week.

Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act have shown that the cost of removal to the council was £534.02.

This was broken down into £518.89 of staffing costs, to hand deliver the letters, £2 in printing costs for 200 letters, and £13.13 in fuel costs to drive borough council vans to Farncombe to collect the placards.

Campaign group members collected their placards from the council, so there was no cost for the disposal of the signs.

The People’s NHS claims that Waverley is the only council to remove the placards, which campaigners say have been going up across the country.

They have subsequently handed in a petition to the council against the ‘gagging’ of the campaign.

The People’s NHS was unavailable to comment on the figures.