AUTHOR Frank Rawlings has always been a stickler for spelling, so it was no surprise he spotted a clanger on a road sign.

Earlier this month Oxfordshire County Council carried out £1,500 of traffic calming measures at the entrance to Merton, near Bicester.

But instead of reading ‘Merton, Please Drive Carefully’, the last word on a sign was spelt ‘Carfully’.

Mr Rawlings, who has written a book called A Simple Matter Of Style, about the art of writing, said: “We don’t mind if cars are full or not, we just want the drivers to slow down and be careful.

“I ought to write to the county council recommending they buy a few copies. There are lots of useful writing tips, even for officialdom.”

County council spokesman Marcus Mabberley said: “We submitted an order for the sign to our external manufacturer. The order had the correct spelling on it.

“It appears that our instructions were not followed correctly. We put this down to genuine human error.

“We will speak to the supplier regarding this matter to determine how the misspelling occurred.

“The signage will be replaced at no additional cost to the taxpayer.”

The sign, which cost £150, has since been removed.