A row has broken out after council officers removed a General Election campaign poster.

The Conservative candidate for the new Rutland and Stamford constituency Alicia Kearns says her poster was removed from fencing on the A606 on Monday 17 June by Rutland County Council workers.

Mrs Kearns says the council firstly told her the removal was because the poster was on public land and then U-turned and said it was 'distracting' and 'too big'. Rutland County Council spoke to Oakham Nub News in response to the accusations.

A furious Mrs Kearns, who previously held the seat for the former Rutland and Melton constituency up until the General Election was called, said: "It is difficult to see how this is not politically motivated. It's clear the Liberal Democrats-run council does not want my message to be conveyed to our communities. Several times I have requested reasoning for its removal and each time I received conflicting and contradictory answers.

"The Liberal Democrat leader has questions to answer, it is an appalling misjudgement to use Rutland resident-funded council staff to take down a sign when the requests of parish councils go unanswered and ignored for weeks and months."

A spokesperson for the council said: "Candidates and agents were made aware of Rutland County Council's signage policy with respect to large campaign banners at a face-to-face briefing on May 30.

"The office of Conservative candidate Alicia Kearns was contacted by the council's highways service to advise that a banner being displayed along the A606, Burley Park Way did not comply with this policy, due to its size and location.

"As part of our approach to managing signage along the highways, we take steps to remove and safely store banners and posters that are not policy compliant. All other banners and posters that meet the conditions of the signage policy are left in place."

But Mrs Kearns disagrees, saying: "Size limits were not covered in the verbal briefing and Rutland County Council has been unable to provide a written policy to justify their claims – only a policy for community and charity event posters."

She said the police had been informed as tampering with posters is a breach of election law, and local councils do not typically remove posters from private land.

Mrs Kearns added: "In the meantime the police have informed me that I am completely within my rights to put the election poster back up on private land and that is exactly what we are going to be doing today."

The poster has since been reinistated.

There are six candidates standing for the Rutland and Stamford seat at the General Election on July 4:

• Emma Baker (Green Party)
• Joanna Burrows (Rejoin EU)
• Christopher Clowes (Reform UK)
• Alicia Kearns (Conservative)
• James Moore (Liberal Democrats)
• Joe Wood (Labour).