A ROW over letters on signs bearing a North Yorkshire town’s name has been resolved after tourists and residents questioned the literacy of its civic leaders.

Former Northallerton mayor John Coulson has led a two-year campaign to change the five entrance signs to the town after he said he had been inundated with complaints that its name featured a lower-case “n”.

The “northallerton” signs were installed about four years ago, but Coun Coulson said he wanted to “put the capital back into North Yorkshire’s capital” and that tourists were disappointed by what they thought was a “grammatical error”.

Capital Ns have now been stuck over the original letters at a cost of £65. The bill for replacing the signs would have run into thousands of pounds.

Town councillor Steven Richardson said: “It has been a bit of an embarrassment and has made us look a bit stupid and not literate in any way.”