City's street sign tribute to suffragette backfires in an embarrassing way
LONDON -- A city council's tribute to a key suffragette who lived in Salford has spectacularly backfired after her name was misspelt on street signs.
The signs, to honour Christabel Pankhurst, were misspelt Parkhurst Close and Chrisable Walk.
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The suffragette lived for a while with her parents and sisters in Seedley, Salford.
Labour Councillor John Warmisham, who had pitched the idea for the street names, said he was "fuming" on discovering the error.
“When I was told of the blunder I got right on to the council and said ‘sort this, it is ridiculous.' Clearly somewhere along the line, someone does not know their history and can’t spell," he told Manchester Evening News.
Warmisham alerted Urban Vision, who are responsible for naming streets in the city.
"They told me that they sent the correct spellings to the developers Countryside Properties so something must have gone wrong somewhere," he told the BBC.
A spokesman for Countryside properties said in a statement: "Our attention has been drawn to the spelling mistakes made on the new street signs at the new Liverpool Street development in Salford.
"Countryside accepts full responsibility for this matter and we would like to apologise for any offence caused. We took the signs down as soon as we realised the error and new ones will be in place as soon as possible."
Like her mother Emmeline, who founded the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), Christabel Pankhurst was at the forefront of the movement that fought for women's suffrage.
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