Sign saga: Gisborne Council’s reoccurring wonky give-way sign

Gisborne District Council staff have fixed the give-way sign at the corner of Grey St and Salisbury Rd, near Waikanae Beach, 10 times since July 2022 at a total cost of $6700. Photo / Google Maps

A persistently crooked give-way sign in Gisborne has become a talking point, thanks to frequent mishaps, including facing the wrong direction for 10 days.

No matter how many times Gisborne District Council staff fix the sign at the corner of Grey St and Salisbury Rd near Waikanae Beach, they end up returning to repair it- for a total of $6700 in the last two and a half years.

Residents say the sign is “wonky at least 90% of the time”.

The council “fix it ... and then it’s knocked down the very next day”.

According to a council spokeswoman, the sign has been repaired 10 times since July 2022, with damage attributed to driver behaviour.

“The damage has been made by vehicles crossing the centre line,” the spokeswoman said.

The sign is opposite a parallel park, close to the Waikanae Top 10 Holiday Park.

Residents with views of the sign from their houses have been following the saga closely.

They say the parallel park does not leave enough space for reversing, especially for larger vehicles like campervans. Also, drivers turning right into Grey St off Salisbury Rd often clip the sign.

Locals suggest driver behaviour and poor design are to blame.

Resident George Horsfall, who owns an Airbnb nearby, said the sign was wonky at least 90% of the time.

He had seen the sign hit by drivers reversing or turning right at least six times since 2019.

“Ten out of 10 people would probably almost run the island over when they’re turning right. But then there’s the odd person that will run the island over and clip the sign because the sign is not right on the edge of the island,” Horsfall said.

He suggested adding pedestrian crossings, removing the parallel parks and widening the holiday park’s driveway.

Another resident, who wished to remain anonymous, suggested the council change the car parks behind the sign from angled parks to parallel parks.

People were angle-parking and backing out the wrong way, he said.

“They fix it one day and then it’s knocked down the very next day.”

He said the worst incident he had seen was a car getting wedged and stuck at the base of the sign after backing into it.

He noted the sign was getting shorter as the repairers cut the bend in the pole and then put it back. “And wait for the next [person] to knock it down, I suppose”.

He also said the sign had faced the wrong way twice, once by repairers putting it back incorrectly and once by the wind blowing it.

“It was once facing the wrong way for 10 days.”

The wonky give-way sign (left) facing in the wrong direction, which a local resident says took 10 days to fix.

The council confirmed it had spent $6792 repairing the sign and adding the line marking to prevent further damage.

It also removed the car park behind the sign to make reversing easier for larger vehicles.

Despite its notoriety, the Grey and Salisbury Rd giveway sign wasn’t the costliest to maintain, according to the spokeswoman.

“At this time the De Lautour Rd signs – in the last few months – have been the most replaced/repaired signs within the city or urban network.”

It was hard to quantify a street sign with the highest costs as there were too many factors for each, she said.

“The main cause we can find and generally see is from vehicle damage and sometimes where members of the public will pull out signage (seemed to have been a fad for a while).”