BATTLING pensioner Arthur Newey has been ordered to remove a series of signs criticising his local council - or face jail.
Mr Newey, aged 74, has been waging a three-year battle against Rotherham Council after it ordered him to remove a sign advertising his son's carpet business from the side of his house.
But the defiant pensioner put up more signs on his house in Doncaster Road, Dalton, describing councillors as "lying evil scum of the earth", and planning boss Gerald Smith as "the town's worst enemy".
Other signs attack local MPs Denis MacShane and John Healey, with one of them reading: "My dog would make a better MP."
But a judge at Sheffield Crown Court has now granted the council an injunction giving Mr Newey 28 days to remove the signs.
Judge Bullimore ordered him not to put up any more signs and to pay £2,325 in costs, and warned that failure to obey the injunction could mean him going to prison.
But Mr Newey - who has been fined three times in the past for putting up the signs without planning permission - claims he has been the subject of a 'vendetta' by the council.
After the court hearing he said he would take down the signs - but promised his battle with the council was not over.
Mr Newey claims he has been harassed by the council since he opposed a local road scheme.
He won a long battle to get a compulsory purchase order scrapped for his terraced home - which meant the council had to abandon part of a road widening plan.
Planners turned down a retrospective planning application for the first sign. Mr Newey appealed to the Secretary of State but was told the six foot sign was 'detrimental to the area'.
Since then the council claims it has received more complaints about the signs.
But Mr Newey said: "A man has a right to protest and this is my protest against what they did. We did apply for planning permission for the sign advertising my son's business and 50 yards down the road there are signs that are twice as big. The fact I was turned down amounts to victimisation."
A council spokesman said: "We hope this will bring an end to the matter. We now hope Mr Newey will heed the judge's advice and comply with the order."
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