What happens to Road Signs after they are taken down?

[Lamp&SignCollector]

I have recently been trying to get some old road signs off my local Council to use to divert traffic at a car boot sale, I was just thinking what the Council actually do with them after they are taken down. They can't be scrapped due to them being worthless as scrap metal and the rest they take down usually are faded and rusty after being up for a long time or are personalised and will never be needed again.

Does anyone know or have any ideas on what happens to the signs after removal?

[orudge]

Occasionally they get rescued by Sabristi!

[Gareth]

Taken to the council tip, normally.

[Lamp&SignCollector]

Occasionally they get rescued by Sabristi!

I live near that road where he got those signs from, I wondered where they went after they were removed!

[Lamp&SignCollector]

Taken to the council tip, normally.

Ah right I will have to ask if they will sell any or if they have any at all, thank you.

[Bryn666]

Normally they are 'taken down to tip', which often means they spend ages in a shed awaiting scrapping.

Given what you've said I am assuming you live in the Trafford area, which makes me think the Carrington depot is your best bet to ask.

They will sometimes let you take them off their hands as the signs have normally got no scrap value and take up space in the sheds - if they ask for money, ask to speak to a supervisor as this could well be a fraudulent transaction and you don't want to land yourself in hot water (I have heard stories of council depots flogging off stuff and pocketing the cash). I have several at home that were in a 'spares' box, despite being unsuitable for use as casual replacements (e.g they were no longer current signs).

One thing to be cautious of is that even if you plan to use these signs off highway for a car boot sale, ensure they are clean enough to be seen and have some degree of retro-reflective ability left in them. You don't want punters making a song and dance that invisible signs caused them problems.

[RichardA626]

I did wonder if road signs could have the original design removed & a new one stuck on.

[Bryn666]

You can 're-face' an older sign, but there's no cost advantage in doing so these days. Especially not given if it has visible fixings on the front it doesn't comply with BS EN 12899 and has to be replaced anyway.

[Lamp&SignCollector]

Normally they are 'taken down to tip', which often means they spend ages in a shed awaiting scrapping.

Given what you've said I am assuming you live in the Trafford area, which makes me think the Carrington depot is your best bet to ask.

They will sometimes let you take them off their hands as the signs have normally got no scrap value and take up space in the sheds - if they ask for money, ask to speak to a supervisor as this could well be a fraudulent transaction and you don't want to land yourself in hot water (I have heard stories of council depots flogging off stuff and pocketing the cash). I have several at home that were in a 'spares' box, despite being unsuitable for use as casual replacements (e.g they were no longer current signs).

One thing to be cautious of is that even if you plan to use these signs off highway for a car boot sale, ensure they are clean enough to be seen and have some degree of retro-reflective ability left in them. You don't want punters making a song and dance that invisible signs caused them problems.

Thank you for this, it has been useful information! I will try and get in touch with the Carrington depot which is only down the road from the Car Boot Sale site so not much distance to travel. I actually have a few signs and a lot of cones, I spend most of my free time cleaning them up, making sure they aren't worn or faded and that they are reflective and visible to motorists, I usually have to paint those yellow No Waiting cone symbols on again as they come off over time. Thanks again for this.

[Glenn A]

There used to be a dumping ground for old road signs and street lights in North Shields. However, the entrance to the council depot was about ten feet high with barbed wire and impossible to get into.

[Lamp&SignCollector]

There used to be a dumping ground for old road signs and street lights in North Shields. However, the entrance to the council depot was about ten feet high with barbed wire and impossible to get into.

If I had a large truck I would have took everything, I am sure there would have been a way in somewhere... It's a shame that I am not near there...

[jgharston]

They get chucked in the river.

[Lamp&SignCollector]

They get chucked in the river.

Not all of them, we have regular river cleanups and they barely pull out much except bottles, a few bikes, and the odd cone. They have never found a sign in there, not from the road anyway.

[sotonsteve]

You mention worthless as scrap metal, but a lot of signs nowadays aren't even made of metal and come with labels on the back of them saying they aren't metal and therefore worthless to steal.

[Lamp&SignCollector]

You mention worthless as scrap metal, but a lot of signs nowadays aren't even made of metal and come with labels on the back of them saying they aren't metal and therefore worthless to steal.

They are only 10% Aluminium compound, and the inner material is actually plastic. If you ever have one to hold you can see a line in the sides where it was joined together in the manufacturing reason. It helped stop people stealing the signs for scrap metal (Yes, people actually stole them claiming they were taken down and were to be discarded)

[Sulzer:1999]

I hauled a couple of dark-blue bordered 'local' direction signs from the scrap skip at Aviemore Loco shed proclaiming 'Strathspey Railway' & had them stashed away inside for safe keeping.
I have informed full time staff of their significance & not to chuck them out again during any clear-out!
Always wondered if I should start buying these type of signs from councils, bearing in mind what old railway 'Totems' are worth....

Murray Duncan.

[OLD GIT]

Now ,if you'd asked the right folk in the right firm about ten years ago, you'd have has as many as you wanted- at a price. Nothing was safe ,not even scrap rail.

[yen_powell]

I put up three or four supposedly theft proof street name plates in the early 90s. We were trying them out, they were a perspex sign set into a lipped metal tray type frame.

They went missing quite quickly. In about 2005 I saw one of the persex plates for sale in an antiques shop in Thaxted. I asked the dealer where he got it from and he told me that the councils take them down and sell them. When I told him it was one I'd put up and it had been pinched he said anything with an east London postcode was worth money. It wasn't even a nice looking sign??

[RichardA626]

IIRC Liverpool CC took down a lot of their cast iron street signs & auctioned them off.

[chris486]

The City Centre is Manchester but if you look closely at this sign you will notice it once pointed to Hollins College - someone has painted it over and turned it upside down to reuse it!



This sign won't be there any longer - it pointed down Bonsall Street which no longer exists. Maybe it has found a third life somewhere.