IT'S OFFICIAL

Just two weeks after the Daily Echo revealed that the city had lost the right to host a stage of the Volvo Ocean race to south-coast rivals Portsmouth, the last of the signs welcoming visitors to "The Home Of Ocean sailing" have been taken down.

The signs, which formerly welcomed drivers on major routes into the city, had proudly announced Southampton's connection with sailing races.

Yet over the weekend the signs were removed. In their place are new signs which merely say "Welcome to Southampton" and feature an image of a cruise liner.

The city's strong links with the cruise business seems to have outweighed its other claims to fame including being the home of Premiership football team Saints, the Spitfire, British American Tobacco cigarettes, Bacardi Breezers and being dubbed the south's teenage pregnancy capital.

Mystery surrounds who was actually responsible for removing the signs.

A city council spokesman claimed the AA were responsible for taking down the signs.

However, AA signs manager Andrew Banyard told the Daily Echo that it was unlikely that the motoring organisation had removed them.

The signs were originally put up by the AA 11 years ago under a contract with city leisure chiefs.

According to a city council spokesman, the contract ran out last year and the signs were due to be replaced with different notices proclaiming Southampton's connection with cruise liners.

Yet some of the signs lingered on - only to mysteriously vanish over the past few days.

A city council spokesman said: "The city council has not taken them down. They belong to the AA which was contracted by us to put them up 11 years ago on a ten-year contract.

"If they are being taken down now, it is because there is no contract in place."

He added it was a "coincidence" that the signs had been removed two weeks after the city council lost the right to stage the Volvo Ocean Race stopover in May next year.

Mr Banyard said: "We did have a contract to put the signs up. They should have been removed by the council some while ago and replaced by signs that had something to do with ocean liners.

"If they have gone, it could well be the council that should have taken them down.

"The council should have removed them and replaced them.

"It would not have been something that would have been on our work schedules unless someone has happened to ask us to do that."

City council leader Councillor Adrian Vinson said: "We replaced most of the old signs a long time ago and if there are any left, it may be that they are being replaced coincidentally."

What do you think Southampton should be the home of?

Write to David Newble at the Southern Daily Echo, Newspaper House, Test Lane, Redbridge, Southampton, Hampshire SO16 9JX or e-mail using the link above.