A SIGN displayed in the window of a council office which referred to ‘internet idiots’ and ‘keyboard warriors’ was put up in error.

Whitehaven Town Council has since removed the wording, ‘which was not intended to offend anyone’.

The ‘light hearted' comments were written by local businessman, Gerard Richardson MBE, and were part of a photographic exhibition held after lockdown intended to ‘get people talking and have a laugh’.

The wording read: “Go on, how many of you have seen the keyboard warriors complaining that an office block shouldn’t have been built where Albion Square is?

“Next time you see one of the internet idiots posting a moan like that remember this photo…”

Marlene Jewell the clerk to the council said: “I have removed the wording as it is not the council’s intention to offend anyone.

“The wording was one of a number of interactive humorous comments that were attached to a few photos in an exhibition that the council staged two years ago just after lockdown and it was still attached to the front of the image when it was removed from storage as part of the current shop window exhibition and placed in the Council’s office window.”

Gerard Richardson, author of the words, said: ‘In the context of the exhibition and at the time it was held, it was one of a number of light hearted comments aimed at getting people to chat and have a laugh and not only did it work at the time, but there were no complaints.

“Ironically it was a joke aimed at what people often refer to on the internet as the ‘professionally offended’.  It was intended for a different context and the fault is mine, not the town Council’s.”