I could not help but notice the article that appeared in the news section of this site yesterday headlined 'Insurers will pay out for stolen road sign'.

Apparently a while back some rascal whipped one of those newfangled electrical road signs that flash a message up to warn drivers if they are exceeding the speed limit.

The vehicle activation sign, to give it it's proper name, was located in Great Kingshill which to the best of my knowledge is hardly an area one thinks of being a centre for crime and corruption.

What surprised me the most was the price given in the news article of £3,000 for such a simple sign.

Sometimes my good self wonders what the point of these signs really is.

Activation of the sign does not issue a fine so most drivers ignore the warning messages and continue on their merry way so what benefit are they other than to confirm to the driver their speedometer is working correctly?

The news article also raises the question of insurance for items of street furniture placed beside the public highway.

If there were to be a spate of such thefts then surely it will raise the insurance premiums for residents living locally.

I for one would certainly not want my house insurance increasing because some light fingered delinquent lifted a road sign near my home.

So are all the municipal road signs and street furniture in the County insured in a similar way? I would hope not due to the cost of insurance.

If there was £3,000 going spare then why not pay a real police man, whoops I mean police person after all we live in an age of political correctness, to sit beside the road and issue real penalty notices to drivers who flout the speed limits.

The sad fact is that modern satellite navigation equipment tells drivers if they are approaching a speed camera so they can slow down rendering the cameras useless. Only the daft, ignorant or those without a sat navigation device end up with speeding fines these days.

If the powers that be are so worried about speeding then surely it would be best to install speed detection equipment in the cars themselves so the drivers get fined if they travel too fast.

In fact the bureaucrats in Europe wanted to introduce a system in new cars which automatically applied the brakes if the drivers tried to go too fast.

Dubbed ‘Intelligent Speed Adaptation’ technology or ISA for short the proposed EU technology is part of a new safety crack down to save lives on the road.

Do you know I would wholeheartedly support the introduction of ISA technology in all new vehicles. Naturally my trusty motor which is an older vehicle would be exempt meaning one would be able to out accelerate and overtake the drivers of newer cars at will.

It's a shame someone doesn't come up with a device to detect if the driver of the vehicle is on their mobile and stop the car automatically if they are calling while driving. Now that would be a good idea....

What do you think?

*My next exciting and enthralling blog will be published on Tuesday evening around 8pm.