New “Welcome to England” signs in Dover

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Gareth Thomas
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New “Welcome to England” signs in Dover

Post by Gareth Thomas »

Whilst walking along Dover seafront today I noticed a sign on the A20 saying “Welcome to England”. Approximate location here.

I wondered if there was a similar sign on the A2, so when I got back to my car I took a quick detour along Jubilee Way and lo and behold, there was! Approximate location here.

I thought it quite quirky that, just like at the M4/M49 junction, you can be welcomed to England without ever having left it. The signs look very recent so I don’t know when they were put up, but probably not more than a week or so ago. I’ll try and get a photo next time I’m there.
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Re: New “Welcome to England” signs in Dover

Post by Nathan_A_RF »

I noticed the one on the A20 yesterday after arriving from Calais. Still no 'Welcome to the UK' or 'Drive on left' or 'Welcome to Kent' signs. The signs in the port are a shambles, especially at the exit. Compared to Calais port which has now doubled in size and has superb signage, Dover is pitiful.
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Re: New “Welcome to England” signs in Dover

Post by Bryn666 »

Nathan_A_RF wrote: Thu Jul 28, 2022 11:41 I noticed the one on the A20 yesterday after arriving from Calais. Still no 'Welcome to the UK' or 'Drive on left' or 'Welcome to Kent' signs. The signs in the port are a shambles, especially at the exit. Compared to Calais port which has now doubled in size and has superb signage, Dover is pitiful.
Have they finally finished the work over that side? On GSV the A216 is now sporting a massive D4M approach and all kinds of new flyovers. Rather makes what is planned for Dover pale into insignficance.
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Re: New “Welcome to England” signs in Dover

Post by ellandback »

Gareth Thomas wrote: Wed Jul 27, 2022 19:39 Whilst walking along Dover seafront today I noticed a sign on the A20 saying “Welcome to England”. Approximate location here.
Did it say "Welcome to England" only in English or in other languages too? Doesn't seem overwhelmingly welcoming if the former! :scratchchin:
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Re: New “Welcome to England” signs in Dover

Post by Nathan_A_RF »

Bryn666 wrote: Fri Jul 29, 2022 17:28 Have they finally finished the work over that side? On GSV the A216 is now sporting a massive D4M approach and all kinds of new flyovers. Rather makes what is planned for Dover pale into insignficance.
Yeah the port at Calais has more or less doubled in size, and the old check-in, passport control etc seems apparently abandoned for now. It is really quite something. I wish I grabbed a video from the coach but alas I did not. You can see some footage here: https://youtu.be/nbziPw6FuLM
Dover is a mess with patches of asphalt, concrete, buildings on top of everything and poor signage. I hope an expansion can be done there too.
ellandback wrote: Fri Jul 29, 2022 19:02 Did it say "Welcome to England" only in English or in other languages too? Doesn't seem overwhelmingly welcoming if the former! :scratchchin:
Alas, just the standard rose symbol with 'Welcome to ENGLAND' underneath.
Quite something that we bothered to make the escape lane signs down Jubilee Way trilingual but can't on a sign welcoming people to our country...
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Re: New “Welcome to England” signs in Dover

Post by rmcrorie »

Nathan_A_RF wrote: Sat Jul 30, 2022 12:35Quite something that we bothered to make the escape lane signs down Jubilee Way trilingual but can't on a sign welcoming people to our country...
My thoughts entirely... it's polite to welcome foreigners to our country in their own language... :D

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Re: New “Welcome to England” signs in Dover

Post by Big L »

It’s almost as if foreigners aren’t going to be made welcome in post-BoJo Britain.
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Re: New “Welcome to England” signs in Dover

Post by Bryn666 »

Nathan_A_RF wrote: Sat Jul 30, 2022 12:35
Bryn666 wrote: Fri Jul 29, 2022 17:28 Have they finally finished the work over that side? On GSV the A216 is now sporting a massive D4M approach and all kinds of new flyovers. Rather makes what is planned for Dover pale into insignficance.
Yeah the port at Calais has more or less doubled in size, and the old check-in, passport control etc seems apparently abandoned for now. It is really quite something. I wish I grabbed a video from the coach but alas I did not. You can see some footage here: https://youtu.be/nbziPw6FuLM
Dover is a mess with patches of asphalt, concrete, buildings on top of everything and poor signage. I hope an expansion can be done there too.
ellandback wrote: Fri Jul 29, 2022 19:02 Did it say "Welcome to England" only in English or in other languages too? Doesn't seem overwhelmingly welcoming if the former! :scratchchin:
Alas, just the standard rose symbol with 'Welcome to ENGLAND' underneath.
Quite something that we bothered to make the escape lane signs down Jubilee Way trilingual but can't on a sign welcoming people to our country...
There's no expansion planned at Dover but the outbound controls are all being rebuilt. The tenders are out for it now. I can't really say much beyond that because I have had some close involvement and have at several times asked if this will remotely be enough...

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Re: New “Welcome to England” signs in Dover

Post by exiled »

The sign being in the language(s) of the state in question are more the norm than the oddity.
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Re: New “Welcome to England” signs in Dover

Post by Nathan_A_RF »

Big L wrote: Sat Jul 30, 2022 13:20 It’s almost as if foreigners aren’t going to be made welcome in post-BoJo Britain.
I feel like they've not been welcomed very much in the past though. As I said earlier we barely have any "Welcome to the UK" signs or even standardised speed limit signs.
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Re: New “Welcome to England” signs in Dover

Post by Bryn666 »

Nathan_A_RF wrote: Sun Jul 31, 2022 11:39
Big L wrote: Sat Jul 30, 2022 13:20 It’s almost as if foreigners aren’t going to be made welcome in post-BoJo Britain.
I feel like they've not been welcomed very much in the past though. As I said earlier we barely have any "Welcome to the UK" signs or even standardised speed limit signs.
How anyone is supposed to make head or tails of our "NATIONAL SPEED LIMIT" boards leaving ports is anyones guess. Once again we couldn't just follow the European style could we?
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Re: New “Welcome to England” signs in Dover

Post by Vierwielen »

Bryn666 wrote: Tue Aug 02, 2022 10:50
Nathan_A_RF wrote: Sun Jul 31, 2022 11:39
Big L wrote: Sat Jul 30, 2022 13:20 It’s almost as if foreigners aren’t going to be made welcome in post-BoJo Britain.
I feel like they've not been welcomed very much in the past though. As I said earlier we barely have any "Welcome to the UK" signs or even standardised speed limit signs.
How anyone is supposed to make head or tails of our "NATIONAL SPEED LIMIT" boards leaving ports is anyones guess. Once again we couldn't just follow the European style could we?
... and how many visitors to the UK are meant to understand what "psi" means?
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Re: New “Welcome to England” signs in Dover

Post by Vierwielen »

Bryn666 wrote: Tue Aug 02, 2022 10:50
Nathan_A_RF wrote: Sun Jul 31, 2022 11:39
Big L wrote: Sat Jul 30, 2022 13:20 It’s almost as if foreigners aren’t going to be made welcome in post-BoJo Britain.
I feel like they've not been welcomed very much in the past though. As I said earlier we barely have any "Welcome to the UK" signs or even standardised speed limit signs.
How anyone is supposed to make head or tails of our "NATIONAL SPEED LIMIT" boards leaving ports is anyones guess. Once again we couldn't just follow the European style could we?
Do you means the words "NATIONAL SPEED LIMIT" or the white sign with a black diagonal line?
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Re: New “Welcome to England” signs in Dover

Post by Conekicker »

Easier to hand each driver a leaflet as they get off the boat/train, or on a website. Trying to explain the various UK speed limits for different classes of vehicles on a traffic sign, including conversion to km/h, would result in some very large and complex signs, unreadable to passing traffic.
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Re: New “Welcome to England” signs in Dover

Post by Big L »

It can’t help that the first and second pictures are the same on each sign (with different limits shown), but not the same same picture as on the other sign. Someone has messed up there surely.
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Re: New “Welcome to England” signs in Dover

Post by tom66 »

Interestingly 40 mph is 64.37 kph, so technically that sign is encouraging drivers to ever so slightly speed by telling them the limit is 65 kph.

Given speeding is legally defined as anything over the posted limit this is amusing. Of course the likelihood of 65 kph being considered speeding (in a 40 mph) is practically nil but I'm surprised they didn't round it down to 60 kph.
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Re: New “Welcome to England” signs in Dover

Post by Bryn666 »

tom66 wrote: Tue Aug 02, 2022 21:48 Interestingly 40 mph is 64.37 kph, so technically that sign is encouraging drivers to ever so slightly speed by telling them the limit is 65 kph.

Given speeding is legally defined as anything over the posted limit this is amusing. Of course the likelihood of 65 kph being considered speeding (in a 40 mph) is practically nil but I'm surprised they didn't round it down to 60 kph.
They're also out of date wrong because the S2 speed limit for HGVs in England is now 50.
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Re: New “Welcome to England” signs in Dover

Post by orudge »

Bryn666 wrote: Wed Aug 03, 2022 13:22 They're also out of date wrong because the S2 speed limit for HGVs in England is now 50.
AFAIK there's no sign on the Scottish border informing folk of the 40mph HGV limit (though I do recall seeing it on the VMS sometimes) either, or I guess 50mph the other way around.

Curiously enough, the gov.uk speed limits page does have rows for "England and Wales" and "Scotland" - I guess if you're in Northern Ireland you're on your own to figure it out! (A note to indicate that NI has its own Highway Code mightn't go amiss.)
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Re: New “Welcome to England” signs in Dover

Post by Gareth Thomas »

I think the UK is fairly unique in that there are no "Welcome to the UK" signs at any of its borders (excluding purely island nations, of course).

I suppose a reason they only went for English on the signs could be, what languages would you put on there? French would be obvious, but a lot of lorries from Eastern Europe use the port for example (Romania and Latvia being the two most common I've seen, although this is by no means scientifically accurate!). So would you put Polish on there as well? Latvian? Dutch?

I'd have put French on there at the very least.

Another thing I wondered was instead of having the two signs at different locations, why they didn't put one sign here.
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