Unwelcome signs iof the time...

MISSING and vandalised street signs are a significant and irritating feature in north Norfolk.

So it's good news to read that North Norfolk District Council (NNDC) is spending �100,000 on repairs and replacements, including the installation of 1,000 new signs … or is it?

I think I need to get up close and personal with one of the new signs before I decide.

But I wasn't encouraged by the photo of street signs officer Richard Cook in last week's News.

There are certain areas of North Walsham where the majority of the street-name signs have had some or all of their lettering removed.

And the clutch of new signs Mr Cook had in his arms looked suspiciously similar in design to the ones which vandals round these parts obviously find a doddle to deface.

I have in my files an NNDC 'Street Nameplate Newsletter', dated February 2008.

It says: 'It has been confirmed that the current design specification for the nameplate which we are using, in which the lettering is sandwiched in a laminate layer, is durable and as vandal resistant as any other product on the market.'

If I'm right then, and these replacement signs are the same design as the old, I've a nasty feeling a sizeable chunk of that �100,000 - our hard-earned cash - could be money down the drain.

In an ideal world some genius, like cats' eyes inventor Percy Shaw, would step forward with a revolutionary solution to the problem.

But in the real world I can only suggest we council taxpayers become increasingly vigilant and ring the police whenever we suspect someone's up to no good with a street sign.

That same newsletter goes on to report an incident in Holt Road, Cromer, at about 10pm one weekday evening, when two complete signs, well-concreted in to the ground, were completely removed, in full view of passing traffic.

If some of those motorists had seen their own �10 notes being torn up in front of their eyes as the yobs went about their business, they just might have bothered to try and stop them.