Fears have been raised that a road collision could take place in Largs and surrounding area after a spate of battery thefts from roadwork traffic lights during the past month.
Inspector Colin Convery of Largs Police has said there were five incidents in the past ten days where batteries have been stolen resulting in traffic lights not working properly in Largs and West Kilbride.
He warned: "Potentially public safety on the roads is a concern as when the batteries are taken out, the traffic lights don't work, and you then have people jumping the lights or possibly meeting in the middle, when the lights aren't working. I would ask the public to be vigilant and to report anything that they see is suspicious."
Two incidents at the bottom of the Haylie Brae, and another in Corsehill Drive, in West Kilbride have taken place, with the overall cost of the stolen batteries amounting to £2500.
Inspector Convery added: "There is obviously some kind of value in them in terms of the metal but we have also been carrying out a lot of intervention work with scrap merchants."
Roads committee chairman Andy Adair of Largs Community Council said: "I think it is crazy and irresponsible for folk to go to that level of stealing batteries from traffic lights. It is going to cause havoc, and very possibly an accident. These people need their head examined. It is totally irresponsible of people to do this - these batteries must be heavy so whoever is doing this must have access to a van to take these things away."
Largs Conservative councillor Tom Marshall said: "I think that is appalling by anyone - it is a safety issue. I'd have imagined that these batteries would have been locked but they shouldn't be able to get them, but perhaps they are taking away the whole units. I would encourage locals to keep an eye open and report anything that is strange which is going on with people examining traffic lights.
"In terms of terms of the highway code, you are only meant to stop for a red light, If they don't work, they don't default to red, and there is no red light, so that can obviously lead to problems.
If you seen anything suspicious near roadworks, phone the police on 101.