A boss who manufactures A-boards for traders today declared the future of his firm had been saved after the council agreed to drop unpopular plans to all but ban them from Wolverhampton.

Relieved Alan Jones, who runs Rotosign in Gough Road, Coseley, said his company could have folded under proposals to charge traders £150 just to apply to place them on the street. 

As the Express & Star reported this week, the new Tory-Liberal Democrat alliance dropped the charges idea, which would have applied per board. The plan had created uproar among businesses, which warned trade would be decimated.

Mr Jones took over the business at the start of the year after it went into administration while based in Kent. He merged it with his sheet metal firm Yeoman Pressings, which employs just under 50 people. 

He supplies A-boards to businesses including shops, pubs, newsagents, butchers, community centres, nightclubs and estate agents. 

“We are absolutely delighted there won’t be a £150 charge for people having A-boards,” he said today. “It has probably saved four jobs here. When Rotosign went into administration we bought it up to the Black Country and we get lots of business from Wolverhampton. 

“We charge about £1,800 for an A-board and it has been a very useful acquisition for our sheet metal business. Manufacturing isn’t always easy to be in and the A-boards help shore our core business up.”