THE MIKIVERSE

200 fined after fake sign erected: police

Georgina Robinson
August 27, 2009 - 2:52PM

There is a reluctant hero lurking somewhere in the suburb of Beecroft, in Sydney’s north-west.

Fed up with hundreds of cars surging through tiny Albert Road each morning during peak hour on a rat run to avoid clogged Beecroft Road, the unknown person took matters into his or her own hands.

"The sign appeared about six months ago," Albert Road resident Mark Ratcliffe said.

"I was driving home along Beecroft [Road] and I was like, 'What the hell?' "

The sign, stating that "no left turn" was permitted between the hours of 7.30am and 9.30am, had been expertly nailed into a power pole on the corner of Beecroft and Albert roads.

It turns out the sign was a fake, erected without the knowledge of the RTA, which controls Beecroft Road, or Hornsby Shire Council, which has jurisdiction over Albert Road.

But residents and parents of children who attend nearby Arden Anglican School, who have campaigned for a decade to install such a sign, thought their prayers had been answered.

"Seven or eight years ago my parents wrote a letter to the council saying [Albert Road] needs to be made one way because it’s a hazard," Mr Ratcliffe said.

"It’s so small and with the primary school [around the corner], parents were coming out of the street and the rat runners were turning in and it was just chaos."

Hornsby Shire mayor Nick Berman even stood on the corner to accept congratulations, the Northern District Times reported. Cr Berman denied he was there but said he mentioned it at an Arden Anglican School assembly.

But the cars kept coming - one driver told smh.com.au it was barely visible from the road - so residents, assuming it was legitimate, called the police.

"No one policed it for ages until we started hassling Eastwood [police] and then they came out and started fining people," Mr Ratcliffe said.

Police said about 200 motorists were pinged over a three-month period, each of them fined $175.

Police urged all drivers fined for disobeying the sign to call the State Debt Recovery Office.

One woman who challenged hers said she was told by the office the offence would appear on her record for the next decade if she wanted to get out of the fine and keep her demerit points.

"After I drove off from being booked I saw what I believe to be a local resident stop her car and give the police a big thumbs-up for booking all the people," the woman said.

It is unclear when the penny dropped or who first worked out the sign should not have been there.

An RTA spokesperson said Hornsby Council approached it first.

"The RTA investigated and removed the sign," the spokesperson said.

The sign was taken down on July 1, police said.

Cr Berman said residents had made numerous representations to the council to have the sign installed.

"But at the end of the day, to actually put the left hand turn sign there is something the RTA would need to consider," he said.

Despite the appeals from residents and the school, the council's traffic management committee had never formally considered the request and the council had never asked the RTA to do something about the corner, Cr Berman said.

"If proper consideration is given to the problems around [Beecroft Road] there may well be other solutions out there ... but we're well aware of the traffic problems," he said.

Speculation on the sign's origins was rife today.

Many smh.com.au readers suggested parents of pupils at Arden Anglican School were fed up with the traffic volumes.

"I have complained multiple times to the school principle [sic] and council about parents double parking up and down the street blocking the flow of traffic in the morning," one reader said.

"It is only a matter of time before a child gets hit by a car.

"The parents seem to hate the through traffic and think they own the street.

"Many abuse the passing motorists."

This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/national/200-fined-after-fake-sign-erected-police-20090827-f04q.html