BRIAN Carey loves to be topical with his well-positioned political messages.

But the Auchinleck artist’s bid to have his say on the Syrian crisis was cut short - by a farmer.

The 52-year-old - who has work displayed on the Howford Bridge and gained national attention with similar displays on Glasgow’s 'Squinty Bride’ - tried his luck again closer to home.

Brian was desperate to use his art to let off steam at what he deems a lack of action taken by British government in Syria.

And he assumed the bridge, just outside Auchinleck on the A76, would be the perfect vantage point to display his latest ramblings.

It read: 'Please Mam Can we have some more Syrian refugees.’ But little did he realise that the bridge was privately owned and used solely for local farmers - who weren’t best pleased.

Brian explained: “I put the artwork up on the Thursday night and thought the bridge belonged to Amey. The local farmer came across and asked my what I was doing and I told him.

“I told him that I’d take it down on the Sunday and he seemed happy enough with this arrangement. But when I came back on Sunday night it had gone.

“A farmer told me Amey had moved it but when I called them they told me it was Transerv that were now in charge of the road.

“But they knew nothing about it.” Brian came back the following day to the bridge near Darnlaw Farm and tried to put up another message - this time for the United Nations.

He added: “I wanted to put up 'United Nations are failing Syria’ when the farmer came back out and told me that I couldn’t put up my messages.

“He was very decent about it and told me that he’d had a number of complaints from various people.” The bridge is owned by Bryce Sloan and his family, who own a number of farms locally.

He said he had no choice but to remove the banner.

Bryce said: “He put it up without asking us and it was a very visible sign. We agreed to let him keep it up until Sunday. But by the time it got dark it was still there so we decided to remove it ourselves.

“A number of people had mentioned it to us. It was a political statement and, whether we agree with him or not, it’s not really something we want to get involved in.

“People were asking if they were our views.

“It would be like putting up an 'Independence for Scotland’ banner. I’m quite happy to help publicise local festivals but not something like this.

“There was no fall-out or anything like that but when he went to put another banner up on the Monday, on the other side, we asked him not to.

“He was as good as his word. We respect that he has strong views but we didn’t want him publicising them on our bridge.”