I was reminded of something which really annoys me. So prepare for a mega-rant on the sort of scale not seen since I visited just about any local newspaper website.

Eastleigh Borough Council is a funny shape which takes in all sorts of places that aren’t actually Eastleigh. Local government is full of fun like this.

My problem with this is that Eastleigh have decided to mark their (rather rubbish) boundaries with signs which say “Welcome to the Borough of Eastleigh”, before saying which part of the world you are actually in. Usually that’ll be something silly like Bursledon or just ‘Eastleigh’.

As if welcoming you to a place you’re not actually in isn’t enough, all of these signs include the slogan “tackling climate change”. I’m sorry, what?

Why does a town need a slogan? And why does it have to be so poncey and better-than-you? Why tell us anyway – since when has it been the council’s job to tackle climate change? It’s a nice gesture but there is no room for such niceties in a world where thousands of people are being made redundant and being torn apart by high taxes. What they’re really trying to say is “spending your money on things you don’t necessarily agree with, want or need”, but I suppose that wouldn’t fit on the sign.

There is an argument that through the 20-20 agreement they are, to a small extent, responsible for tackling climate change, so they’re not doing anything wrong. This is no better. If it’s their job, why are they so proud to announce that they’re doing it? Do they have a track history of not doing their job? Shouldn’t they also have “Welcome to Eastleigh, emptying your bins regularly”? That’s their job too.

Arguments about the environment are all very well but the one thing but why does it have to be so smug and sanctimonious? A passing motorist (who, ironically, due to the council’s boundaries, could be heading up to the motorway to leave the area) could easily read the sign and think Eastleigh is single-handedly solving the world’s biggest problem. Which is an awful lot of praise for an unassuming little suburb. What happened to the days where councils did their bit and shut up?

I was going to end this with a photo of the signs in question, but it turns out they’re too small to show up on Google Street View. 10 points for road safety then.

The irritating sign in question. It's actually too small to be read by anyone passing it and more than 5mph, but fortunately, that's the average speed in Eastleigh.

I write all sorts of absolute tosh. Here’s some more of it.