A LOCAL Euro MP has expressed support for mourners who are protesting at the council's new policy of removing roadside memorials.

Paul Nuttall, a North West UK Independence Party MEP, said that he sympathised with the families who staged a demonstration at the weekend objecting to the decision to remove memorials placed at the scene of road accidents after 30 days.

He said: “The council says that the memorials are a dangerous distraction to both motorists and those leaving the tributes, but I have not heard that that is backed up with statistical evidence.”

He used the example of some areas in France, where the sites of fatal road accidents were marked by life-size cut-out figures representing each victim.

Mr Nuttall added: “They are deliberately very noticeable and very successfully act as a warning to drivers. I think they should be introduced in this country and floral tributes could be left alongside them.”