The week of October 19^th was Waste Reduction Week and there have been many complaints about the abundance of illegal signs placed on utility poles, trees and signposts within the Municipality of East Hants and especially along Highway One in Mount Uniacke/Lakelands. The Department of Transportation has removed private advertising signs near the exits and on-ramps for Highway 101.  The following is an extract of information provided by the Department of Environment:

“If an Inspector with NS Environment receives a complaint of a potential violation of the Regulation, they will take the necessary steps to investigate the issue further.  To report a complaint you must contact the regional Environmental Monitoring and Compliance Office of NS Environment (the local office for Mount Uniacke is located in Bedford at     424-7773).  

The Solid Waste Resource Management Regulations  have a section (Section 24) relating to flyers/advertisements as follows:

Flyers/advertisements 24     (1)   No person, including a sponsor, organizer, or promoter of an event or thing, shall attach or cause to have attached a flyer, brochure, advertisement or other literature on a utility pole, structure, fence, or other thing,      (a)    without the prior approval of the owner of the utility pole, structure, fence, or other thing; and       (b)    without the prior approval of the municipality, city or town where the utility pole, structure, fence, or other thing is located.       

 (2)   Subject to subsection (1), no person, including a sponsor, organizer or promoter of an event or thing, who attaches or causes to be attached a flyer, brochure, advertisement or other literature on a utility pole, structure, fence, or thing shall     (a)    fail to put the posting date on the flyer, brochure, advertisement or literature;    (b)    fail to remove the same within 30 days after the event; or  (c)    fail to dispose of the same as prescribed in these regulations. (3)   No person, including a sponsor, organizer or promoter of an event or thing, shall distribute or cause to have distributed a flyer, brochure, advertisement or other literature by placing the same on a parked vehicle.”

There are an abundance of illegal advertising signs along all roads and highways within our community boundaries and they will be dealt with in due time.  If you have a sign up advertising your business or event and you do not have permission from the owner of the pole you will be charged/fined for the removal of said sign.