Candidates running in this week's Assembly elections in Cardiff have engaged in a row over the theft of party placards.
This week we reported how Plaid Cymru's candidate Neil McEvoy had reported incidents of placards being removed in west Cardiff to South Wales Police.
But the Labour group have said Plaid Cymru's placard claims have become "hysterical" after it was also reported billboards had been taken in Caerphilly.
A spokesperson for Welsh Labour said:
"The Caerphilly Labour Party has been contacted by a number of people extremely angry about Plaid Cymru's illegal fly-posting antics across the constituency.
"At the explicit request of angry residents a number of Plaid Cymru posters were removed by Labour activists in order to be handed to the police as evidence of Plaid's illegal activity.
"This latest spate of dirty tactics comes on the back of weeks worth of Plaid wrongly putting up posters on public property. This too has been reported to the relevant authorities."
A spokesperson for the Labour party in Wales also said the group had seen placards taken from members' houses. A spokesperson told Guardian Cardiff boards had been stolen and vandalised in Grangetown, and Adamsdown.
But the Green party has joined Plaid Cymru in reporting the theft of billboard in west Cardiff ahead of Thursday's election.
Today Jake Griffiths, the regional candidate for the Green party reported further thefts. In a statement he said:
"The Green Party has reported boards being removed from peoples gardens in the Riverside area and reported the incidents to the police. It is unclear who may be behind the disappearance of these boards, however we are replacing them as soon we hear about any removals. We would ask anyone who has had a Green Party board removed to get in touch with us."
Steve Siddall, the chief inspector in charge of policing the elections in Cardiff said there had been a number of reports coming in about poster and billboard thefts.
He said this was the first out of the three last votes (Welsh referendum, General election last year) where the type of theft had been reported.
"There have been a number of reports of various election billboards being taken but whether it's criminal damage or by rival candidates is unclear. Each individual complaint will be investigated."
Siddall said often poster theft went unreported and signs were usually simply replaced – and added sometimes landowners removed the signs if tenants had not sought permission for them.
"The complaints have been coming in from people who own the land. I don't have figures for the number of reports at this time, but this is the first occasion we've had these reports and we will deal with each individually."
A spokesperson for South Wales Police said:
"South Wales Police has received a number of complaints regarding election boards being stolen in areas including Ely, Fairwater and Riverside.
"Regular patrols are being carried out in streets where incidents have been recorded."
Have you had an election poster board taken from your front garden? Tell us in a comment below or email me cardiff.local@guardian.co.ukor add it to our Welsh Elections 2011 map.
