There’s a massive pile of lumber growing in a Surrey public works yard, the byproduct of a crackdown on illegally-placed election signs.
The city has already confiscated some 1,060 of the signs because they’re too close to an intersection. Under the city’s rules, they must be 25 metres away.
City of Surrey manager of public safety operations Jas Rehal said the campaigns were given 48-hours notice before crews started pulling up stakes.
“We had nine teams out over the last three days, said Rehal.
“I’ve had an officer on each team, so nine officers every day for the last three days plus crews,” he said.
The city says the buffer zone around intersections is a safety measure, meant to keep sight lines clear and drivers from being distracted.
Meanwhile, one party campaigning in the election says if it wins power, it will ban such signs from public property in future votes.
“It sends the wrong message out to the public that you can set these rules and then they turn around and break them,” said Safe Surrey Coalition mayoral candidate Doug McCallum.
“They’re an unsightly mess to be honest with you, and we get a lot of complaints. So we want to take action and the action we’re taking if elected is to ban all election signs from public property in the next election.”
Campaigns that want their signs back have three days to recover them, at a cost of $25 a piece.
So far, just 110 of the signs have been claimed.