Bungling council staff had egg on their faces after stationing misspelt street signs at a Romford junction.

Visitors to the Eastern Avenue and Mawney Road crossing last week could be forgiven for thinking they had missed Christmas altogether as they were greeted with signs reading “Easter Avenue”.

The error crept in after Havering Council ordered new signs to spruce up the street scene – but it wasn’t until an officer spotted the springtime slip-up four days later that the signs were taken down.

Havering’s environment boss Cllr Barry Tebbutt said: “Four street name signs that were supplied to us had a letter missing. As soon as the error was noticed by a member of staff the signs were removed.

“New signs will be put up in the next two weeks.”

He added the council wouldn’t be charged for replacing the signs, which had cost a total of �105.78, as the error was made by the supplier.

Lime Close resident Coral Ware, who spotted the botch shortly before the signs were removed on Monday, said: “We couldn’t believe it. I don’t know if they’ve run out of ‘N’s.”

This isn’t the first time the junction has hatched problems for locals. In September last year, Transport for London (TfL) was criticised for shutting a long-awaited pedestrian crossing almost immediately after it opened.

The crossing replaced a footbridge that had been destroyed by a lorry four years previously – but TfL said drivers doing illegal U-turns were putting the public at risk.

A spokesman for TFL said at the time: “Earlier this year, TfL carried out work to install the pedestrian crossing. However, due to drivers disobeying the ‘no U-turn’ signs, we have now had to close it on a temporary basis while further work is carried out to improve safety measures at this junction.”

The crossing eventually reopened in December 2011 with CCTV cameras in place - but local resident and chair of the Brooklands residents’ association Eamonn Mahon said illegal U-turns were still causing problems.

“It doesn’t surprise me,” he said of the erroneous street signs, “but it’s kind of a poor show if anyone doesn’t know how to spell ‘Eastern’.”