COSTLY repair and refurbishment of a West Somerset village’s historic fingerpost damaged by a vehicle at Christmas is nearly complete.

The fingerpost, in the centre of Nether Stowey, was left leaning at a precariously unsafe angle after being damaged by an unknown driver on Christmas Eve shortly before the village’s annual Carols on the Cross service.

Parish council chairman Cllr John Roberts recently went to see progress with repairs by Somerset Forge, in Wells, and said: “What they have done so far is fantastic.

“It should be back in place in the next few weeks.”

The work is costing about £1,800 inclusive of VAT and is being part-funded with a Quantock Landscape Partnership Scheme (QLPS) grant.

Cllr Roberts said the council would like to ‘express their huge thanks’ to QLPS historic heritage officer Dan Broadbent and his colleagues for their contribution to the repairs.

The dangerous fingerpost was quickly removed by the parish council, which later discovered it was responsible for the sign despite it being owned by Somerset Council.

The former county council gave up maintaining Somerset’s 2,200-plus fingerposts after the Government in the 1960s ordered them to be removed and replaced by modern aluminium signs.

Somerset was one of a few areas, including Exmoor National Park and Devon county, which did not remove them but instead allowed parishes to maintain the signs.

A Somerset spokesperson said: “It has become increasingly difficult to justify spending precious resources on non-mandatory services.

“Certain road signs, such as safety and hazard signs, are classed as mandatory, but fingerposts are classified as ‘nice to have’ rather than essential.

“Despite this, we continue to recognise the importance of fingerposts as a valuable part of our county’s heritage and appreciate there is a strong desire from within our local communities to ensure fingerposts are preserved for future generations to enjoy.”