Theft of crossing controllers becomes a pressing problem

PEDESTRIAN crossing control units are being stolen and turned into “fancy doorbells”, a council official has claimed.

Thieves have been targeting pelican crossing signal boxes in Tonbridge, Kent, and the county council (KCC) said it had spent £32,000 on replacements, with each box costing £3,500 to replace.

The controls at a crossing in Shipbourne Road have been targeted so often that it had to be temporarily closed when the council ran out of replacements.

At a meeting of Tonbridge joint transportation board, Toby Butler, KCC highways officer, said the boxes were “being sold on ebay and being used as fancy doorbells”. On the site, user ‘harpur2135’ was selling two control units, for £22 and £22.50, two pedestrian stop-and-go indicators for £30 and £35 and a set of traffic lights for £40.

Mr Butler said the “vandalism” had been happening for over a year, adding that the thieves frequently left live wires exposed when they removed the yellow push-button boxes, which made them an “urgent” safety hazard.

Cllr Mark Hood, of the Green Party, raised the matter at the transportation meeting, saying: “There has been a sustained campaign of vandalism on the crossing close to White Cottage Road, with the operating panels repeatedly removed, exposing the live terminals. It is inconvenient for the people living nearby, it is extremely dangerous and it is also extremely expensive. It’s cost the county £32,000 so far.”

Mr Butler went on: “This crossing is desperately needed for the school children and others to use. It’s clearly there for a very important reason.

“Tonbridge is the only place in the county where this kind of behaviour is happening.”

Mr Butler said he was “at a bit of a loss” as to how to proceed after the police could not offer any help and suggestions that mobile CCTV cameras be used to catch the criminals in the act or that trackers be installed in the boxes to locate them had been dismissed as impractical.

Cllr Hood appealed to residents to tell police if they saw anything suspicious.