Sign saga continues

THE Department of Transport and Main Roads has backflipped on a demand to Member for Burnett Rob Messenger to take down his election signs.

Mr Messenger started putting up his signs two weeks ago when Premier Anna Bligh announced she would visit the governor on February 19 to call a March 24 election.

However, according to Main Roads guidelines, election signs can only be put up after the election is officially called.

Mr Messenger contended that, since the date of the election had been announced, his signs could go up.

Despite a statement from Main Roads on Monday saying he would be asked to take the signs down, Mr Messenger refused, putting up another one outside the police station on Tuesday.

But the saga took a new twist yesterday, with Main Roads saying candidates who had placed election signs on the state-controlled road network would now be allowed to keep them up.

In a statement, a Main Roads spokesman said a decision had been made not to remove signs that complied with regulations from around the state's road network.

"Given the nature of the announcement of the election date, it has been decided to allow candidates to keep their signs up," the spokesman said.

He said candidates still needed to be sure signs were safe.

"If the signs present any sort of danger to motorists or pedestrians, we won't hesitate to remove them," he said.

Mr Messenger, who has blamed the LNP for the issue, said it was time to stop its petty and misleading "anonymous" complaints to media, and now concentrate on the important issues in this election.