"many towns and cities in the UK" is definitely over-selling this. I've never seen this once, so it must be very rare.

Definitely not rare: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0mzkgxr22po

My county isn’t listed there so there plenty more councils which also do this and arent mentioned.

“Many” is subjective though. So your experience could be valid and my statement still true.