A SCHEME to put traditional signs at the boundaries of Liverpool's oldest communities has backfired - leaving families in one upmarket area demading their removal.

Residents in Riverside Drive complained after signs declaring it to be in Dingle, Toxteth and Aigburth were put up within a mile of each other.

Residents on the new estates, created on the site of the International Garden Festival, had demanded the signs should be taken now and re-located.

But council leaders say they have decided against removing the signs until the geographical conundrum is resolved, despite protests that the sign for Dingle is "not even in Dingle".

Last night, Cllr Peter Allen, of St Michael's ward, insisted the signs had not been correctly positioned.

He said: "These signs are absolute nonsense, there's not much point in having signs in the wrong place. I'm annoyed with the officers and, obviously, I'd prefer it if the signs were removed."

Mark Smith, the council's highways and environment officer, said: "We did conduct a wide consultation before the signs were erected and we think they are correctly placed.

"However, we are aware there are still outstanding issues. The signs are not absolutely set in stone and we are happy to listen to the public to get it right."

The council's executive board has decided to listen to councillors' concerns about all disputed signs throughout Liverpool, but in the meantime the board declined to remove the offending markers for the Aigburth and Dingle areas.

Cllr John Coyne, who also represents St Michael's ward, said: "The promise by the executive board is less than we hoped for, but we will work with the review as best we can."

Andrea Spyropoulos, chairwoman of the Riverside Action Group, said residents were upset their area had been wrongly signposted.

She said: "It was quite a shock when they put the signs up. Your postcode determines how much tax you pay and the postcode in Dingle is L3, whereas here is L17.

"It's not because of snobbery, my sister lives in the Dingle and she doesn't consider her area to be Riverside either. It wouldn't harm anybody to change the signs."

Ms Spyropoulos was also concerned the signs would make visitors lose their way.

She said: "I have a terrible sense of direction and if I didn't know the area I'd be confused. We heard nothing about the signs before they went up, but if we had we would have told the council to put them in more sensible places."

The three disputed signs, all located in St Michael's ward, were put up as part of the council's scheme to mark Liverpool's different districts.

However, there is little documentation of Dingle's historical boundary so the sites were chosen on the advice of Joseph Rourke, a member of Highways Management and local historian.