A plaque dedicating a service station bridge to disgraced BBC radio presenter Scott Mills has been removed after he was sacked by the broadcaster.
The plaque for the ‘Scott Mills Bridge’ was put up at Fleet services on the M3 on March 16, 2016, following a light-hearted campaign on his then-Radio 1 show with co-star Chris Stark to get the bridge named after him.
Now, a decade after, the plaque has been removed after he was fired by the BBC from his hit Radio 2 show, replaced by resident stand-in Gary Davies temporarily while a permanent host is found.
Mills, 53, was sacked after it was discovered he was the subject of allegations of ‘serious sexual offences’ against a teenage boy under 16.
Police investigated him from 2016 to 2019. Prosecutors then decided there was not enough evidence to charge him.
A driver stopped off at the service station run by Welcome Break yesterday and noticed Mills’ plaque had been taken down at the start of the bridge.
They told The Sun: ‘I had seen the stories about the bridge with Scott Mills’ name.
‘I never really come to this service station but today I did and the plaque has been taken away.
‘I’m not surprised really. The thing was right by the loos, so everyone walking past could have seen it.’
The outgoing BBC director general Tim Davie said: ‘We’re trying to act fairly. It was new information that we had to make.’
The allegations he faced are said to have happened between 1997 and 2000, police said, while Mills was in his mid-20s.
Mills was questioned under caution by police in 2018 but the case was rejected by the Crown Prosecution Service in 2019 due to a lack of evidence.
The BBC admitted that it knew about the allegations as far back 2017. He was sacked last week.
The broadcaster said that it was not clear if BBC managers at the time of the investigation knew about the age of the boy involved in the sexual offence allegations. Current managers reportedly only became aware in recent weeks and acted to get rid of him.
They are now going through emails and HR records from the time before speaking to staff about what they knew about the Met Police investigation and whether they knew the complainant was a child.
Mills broke his silence by releasing a statement on Wednesday to admit he was the subject of the investigation and did not deny the allegations, before thanking fans and former BBC colleagues.
He insisted he ‘fully cooperated and responded’ at the time of the police probe. But he did not not address the allegations and did not offer a denial.
His full statement read: ‘The recent announcement that I am no longer contracted to the BBC has led to the publication of rumour and speculation. In response to this the Metropolitan Police has made a statement, which I confirm relates to me.
‘An allegation was made against me in 2016 of a historic sexual offence which was the subject of a police investigation in which I fully cooperated and responded to in 2018.
‘As the police have stated, a file of evidence was submitted to the Crown Prosecution Service, which determined that the evidential threshold had not been met to bring charges.
‘Since the investigation related to an allegation that dates back nearly 30 years and the police investigation was closed seven years ago, I hope that the public and the media will understand and respect my wish not to make any further public comment on this matter.
‘I wish to thank from the bottom of my heart all those who have reached out to me with kindness, my former colleagues and my beloved listeners, who I greatly miss.’
In a statement issued on Wednesday, a spokesman for the BBC said: ‘Scott Mills had a long career across the BBC, he was hugely popular and we know the news this week has come as a shock and surprise to many.
‘What we can confirm is that in recent weeks, we obtained new information relating to Scott and we spoke directly with him. As a result, the BBC acted decisively in line with our culture and values and terminated his contracts on Friday, March 27.
‘The BBC has made a significant commitment to improve its culture, processes and standards. Last year, following an independent culture review, we set out the behavioural expectations for everyone who works with or for the BBC and we were clear that action would be taken if these were not met.
‘Separately, we can confirm the BBC was made aware in 2017 of the existence of an ongoing police investigation, which was subsequently closed in 2019 with no arrest or charge being made.
‘We are doing more work to understand the details of what was known by the BBC at this time.’
Welcome Break declined to comment.
