PERTH — In a landmark ruling, Perth and Kinross Council has granted permanent residency to the city's traffic cones, after officials established that many had lived at the same address for longer than the people they were inconveniencing.

"We did a census," said Head of Street Furniture Integration Alison McRae. "There are currently more cones in central Perth than there are residents of Scone. Some of them have been on Caledonian Road so long they've started receiving post. One on York Place was sent a jury summons. It turned up. It sat very still. It was an excellent juror."

The decision follows another week in which almost every street in the city appeared to be closed, half-closed, or controlled by multiphase temporary traffic signals operated by what one motorist described as "a random number generator with a grudge". Works this month include a sewer repair on York Place, an electricity connection on Caledonian Road, a new water pipe at King's Place and cabling along Dundee Road from Queen's Bridge.

Under the new rules, cones resident for more than three years will be allowed to vote in local elections, apply for a bus pass, and join the waiting list for a plot at the North Inch allotments.

Not everyone is pleased. "They come over here, they stand in our roads, they don't do any work," said Craigie resident Tom Baxter, 68. "Well, I say they don't do any work. They do stop me getting to Morrisons. That's something, I suppose."

Cone advocacy groups have welcomed the ruling. "For too long, cones have been treated as temporary," said a spokesperson from the Perthshire Cone Collective, speaking from inside a reflective sleeve. "But we are not temporary. We have never been temporary. Some of us were installed for the 2012 city status celebrations and have simply never been asked to leave."

At press time, the council confirmed the first cone had been sworn in as a citizen in a short ceremony at the Council Chambers, and had immediately been placed across the entrance to the car park.