BUSINESSES in Dorchester are being asked to give their views on advertising signs after complaints about the number of A-boards in the town’s main shopping streets.

The Dorchester and District Chamber of Commerce is conducting a survey among local firms to discover the opinion of the town towards the A-boards.

Bill Burgess, who owns Billy the Fish restaurant and fishmonger off Trinity Street, says his A-board on South Street is absolutely essential to his trade and attracts the vast majority of his customers.

He said: “Without the A-board I would just completely have to throw the towel in.

“People in the High Street don’t need one – it’s people down alleyways.

“I’ve been here for two years and I still get people coming in saying they didn’t realise I was here before.”

Mr Burgess said one way of limiting the impact of boards would be to have designated sections of pedestrianised streets where businesses could place their signs but insisted local firms did their best to keep it in check anyway.

He said: “Shopkeepers do look after their own environment.

“You are not going to clutter up your own street and upset people.”

Chamber chief executive Peter Noble said: “We have heard from a number of different sources that people are fed up with A-boards straddling across South Street.

“Rather than sit and do nothing we have decided we will see what people want and try to put together a plan to tidy the place up and make it safer as well as satisfying the needs of people who think they need them.”

Mr Noble said one option to replace the A-boards could be ‘ladder boards’, with one sign directing pedestrians to several shops so less space was taken up in busy shopping streets.

That idea was supported by Matt Trulocke, owner of Potters Café in Durngate Street, who uses an A-board on South Street to advertise his business.

He said: “It used to be just us and the Walnut Grove and now there are seven or eight – it’s getting ridiculous. We have a signpost up there on the wall with all the businesses on but it hasn’t got any information.

“They need one big sign with all the businesses, what they do and the opening times.”

Julie Scott, joint owner of the Lunchbox in New Street, said she was aware that some people felt there were too many A-boards in Dorchester but said businesses off the main shopping streets needed to draw attention to themselves.

She said: “I can understand why people need them but they do clog up the pavement a bit.”

Jack Crawshaw, managing director of Langley Travel in the Hardye arcade, said the A boards should be standardised and there should also be limits on what other merchandise shops put out on the street.

A Dorset County Council spokesman said: “A-boards placed on the public highway can create real difficulties for some people, particularly those with impaired vision or mobility problems."