VANDALISM and theft of rural road signs has cost Masterton district ratepayers $24,000 over the past year.
Masterton District Council rural roading engineer Alec Birch said there are two major issues relating to the vandalism and damage, with replacement and repair not the greatest problem.
"Probably the most important issue is that
if someone removes or destroys a warning sign from the eye of a driver, there is the potential for injury or death," Mr Birch said.
"One day someone is going to miss a warning sign and have a crash and that is a far more serious issue."
According to Mr Birch, 80 per cent of the money spent on rural road signage is a result of vandalism and theft, with the remaining 20 per cent routine maintenance and repairs.
Mr Birch said the posts used for signage are relatively cheap but the real cost is in the signs themselves.
"Unfortunately we go through them pretty fast when someone decides to smash up a whole piece of road. I just wonder, what does it achieve?"
Mr Birch said every now and then the council manages to get stolen signs back from the rural ward "but for the most part they're gone".
In contrast, the council's urban ward has a far higher rate of success in retrieving road signs.
"Either we come across them in someone's garden or the police drop them in after finding them on a job."
This year's expenditure on damaged and stolen road signs was up $4000 on the previous year.
