Metric martyr battles on

Edward, aged 63, has been caught up in a heavyweight war with Rotherham Council over whether he should still be using the imperial measure scales.

On two occasions Edward - dubbed a 'metric martyr' - has sent Trading Standards officers packing when they turned up at his shop in Thorogate, Rawmarsh, Rotherham, to impound the scales.

EU officials have now ann-ounced that Britain's imperial measure system is safe and can still be used alongside the metric system.

But Edward says his battle will still go on until Britain agrees to quit the EU - and still thinks he will be eventually forced to use the metric system.

And today the council said he would still be breaking the law if he didn't have a second set of metric scales on his counter and his prices displayed in both metric and imperial.

"I am 10 per cent happier today, but I still think they will try and make us use metric if they can," he said. "My aim is to see us out of the EU completely. Why should we go on subsidising French farmers and the like.

"I intend using my pounds and ounces scales as usual. People round here still use pounds and ounces, but I wouldn't be surprised if the council came and tried to take them away again."

A spokesperson for Rotherham Trading Standards said the latest EU directive will make no substantial changes to the current law. "All traders will still have to sell in metric units. However, if they wish they can also price up their goods in imperial units too - providing the imperial signage is less prominent and no larger than the metric prices," he said.

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