WE ARE not always good at reading signs. 

I mean that literally. Where I live in Dollar Street we have seen over the last two months the evidence for my statement.

The road is closed just 50 yards up from my house because of the development works to the Market Place.

From Spitalgate traffic lights to my house there are five big red signs that say ‘road closed’. 

I know this is a difficult sentence to read, it must be as Yet so many drivers still go all the way to the fenced off area at which you can drive no further.

I’ve spoken to a few of the drivers, some with great big caravans in tow, and in a kindly but mischievous way I have asked if they didn’t see saw the signs. 

“Oh yes”,” they reply, “but the sat-nav told me to come this way.” 

Sat-nav has its uses but it is no alternative to reading the signs that give local information.

Then there are those who who find it difficult to envision what something will look like.

I return again to the Market Place development. 

For those who have limited vision, all that can be seen is the chaos of the road works – the fencing, the signage, the noise, and the machinery and so on. 

Some though see it all differently. 

By the end of the year we will have a most wonderful public space all around the Market Place, the magnificent parish church will be in a far greater local setting and shops will benefit from easier access and increased tourism. 

In case you think I’ve been paid by the mayor to write this, you would be wrong, I’m thinking scripture.

One of my favourite passages form the Old Testament is Joel 2: “Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men will dream dreams and your young men shall see visions.”

We need to have eyes that can read the signs.

Father Leonard Doolan
Vicar of Cirencester