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I now have a completed grid, a work area (that I wouldn't normally think of as such a thing), a possible perp (thanks, notrab - I would never have spotted that!) and yes, I also worked out the 'tone' of the 'work area', which is indicated in the preamble.

But I'm stuck. The second part of the instruction points us to what I take to be seven letters (the other two in the trail aren't as described in the instruction) that must be arranged in a column. I can see some possible phrases but none that would make sense in a column, assuming something has to go before or after them - otherwise, what would be the point?

There's a word in the top row that must be more than a coincidence as well. Something that should be given to the perp to persuade him not to create scatological 'messes'? But The Listener disapproves of poor taste, doesn't it?

Wasted a lot of time with i instead of ! - it's amazing how much there is about Pi on the web. My only doubt now is which of the two cells forming the 2nd letter of the perpetrator to highlight. I'm guessing that the one forming the first cell of the trail is not the one to be highlighted. Has anyone any view on this?

Saoralba, I think that the reference to 'dark brown' is perhaps of some assistance in that it might start the solver thinking about paint scheme. So what kind of warning would you leave for the postman ?

No sooner had I posted than I saw I was looking in the wrong place! Ignore earlier post please.

Cockie, I don't follow you.

My perpetrator, maybe there is another candidate I've not seen, runs in reverse diagonally NE to SW from the top row, the last letter being also the last knight's move (on the top row), if you start the moves from the bottom.

I'm still uncertain whether to replace the whole of 42 with an exclamation mark (which could be made up of the two three-letter parts of the word) or just the second half with a full stop. I've always felt exclamation marks were overused in warning notices.

I totally agree, Throck - why give a warning at all if it isn't to be taken seriously ? I suppose the exception is valid is when the ! is the only character on the sign...

On 42, I think I over-complicated it previously. Only the last cell is affected, and the resulting character is a combination of 'DOT', the last 3 characters of the 6-letter answer, and 'I', the 4th character of 49. Which, as a composite is an I with a dot underneath. So the whole composite remains in the grid, and also constitutes the last of the 19 cells to be highlighted.

Which column do I replace letters? I also seem to have a non word BOHE at 43.

Unclued - the exception for bohe is covered in the instructions - "missing the point (e) in one cell..."

Hi Unclued. The 3rd column. If you've an idea of the first word of the warning, just look for the first 2 letters of that word. The replacements occur in the cells below, and also take care of the anomaly in 43 which you've pointed out.