Posters gipsy curse fails to frighten

A school site manager ignored a gipsy curse and removed posters advertising a circus yesterday.

Three posters promoting the Great British Circus were attached to the boundary fence of the Mount Primary School, Newark.

The posters say: “Do not remove — sickness and poverty will strike anyone who does not heed this warning. Gypsy Rose Boswell.”

The school’s site manager, Mr Mark Moody (38) said: “It’s a definite no-no advertising on the fence. The one thing we do not like is bad advertising.

“You need planning permission. It’s a distraction to the traffic.”

The school would not comment about the nature of the posters, but the deputy head, Mr Garth Hicks, said: “We are not allowed to put things on the fence anyway because the council say it will distract the drivers. They are supposed to ring us and then it’s up to the head’s discretion.”

The circus ringmaster, Mr Martin Lacey, confirmed they were his posters and they had been using them for six years.

He said: “We put them up there to stop the animal rights groups from taking them off because they are usually superstitious.

“I don’t think it’s offensive. To those people who are not superstitious they think it’s a joke.

“We lose £800 a month by people ripping them down. We have to add on the cost to the ticket price.

“We put posters up then take them down when we go,” he said.