The cost cutting move is expected to save East Renfrewshire Council (ERC) from shelling out £320,000 on repair bills for the existing signs.

And a report has already shown that up to 80 per cent of the signs are currently non-operational.

The existing signs are positioned outside almost every East Renfrewshire schools’ gates, and flash amber with speed warnings advising drivers to slow to 20mph in the area of the school at peak times.

However these would be replaced with traditional warning triangle school signs from this year, after councillors approved the proposals at a meeting of ERC’s cabinet on Thursday.

The report, delivered by Andrew Cahill, director of environment, said: “No evaluation has taken place nationally to show whether part-time 20mph speed limit signing has been beneficial in terms of reducing speeds and/or accidents outside schools.

“No resources have been given by the Scottish Government in subsequent years to maintain these signs.

“Additionally, the signs have been exposed to the elements for up to nine years.

“This coupled with general wear and tear has left up to 80 per cent of sites non-operational.

“The technology has now been superseded and therefore spare parts are difficult to source and expensive to replace.” However, ERC will retain the electronic signs at six major sites across East Renfrewshire that have been earmarked as high risk or high traffic areas, including outside Barrhead High School on the town’s Aurs Road.

The report read: “It is proposed to reduce the council’s liability in relation to repairing/replacing these signs by retaining electronic signing at six school sites as detailed below.

“These through routes were chosen as they carry a high volume of traffic and are subject to a significant level of pedestrian activity outside the school.” It was also proposed that currently existing school signs outside Netherlee Primary School, Mearns Castle High School and Neilston Primary school be decommissioned and replaced with simpler systems that are more reliable, at a cost of £8,000 to the council.

It is estimated that total cost to the council to remove and replace all electronic school signs throughout the county would be £46,370, rather than opting to repair all the signs at a cost of £85,700 or replacing them with later models, costing £320,000.