Residents of Melville, a small community outside of Port Hawkesbury, say they were horrified this week to see a new community sign with a major spelling error.

Instead of Melville, the sign read Millville, which is a community near Sydney Mines. To make matters worse, it was installed about two kilometres into the community along Highway 4.

Bill Henwood has been pushing for new signs since construction crews removed several of them more than five years ago. At the time, Highway 4 was being widened. The signs were never put back up.

"Finally, they got one up there and now it's the wrong sign, wrong name on it and the wrong spot for it. And they only put one coming from town. They never put any coming from the other way. It's like you're halfway through Melville when the sign is there," said Henwood.

Henwood and others complained to their local councillor about the spelling error on Wednesday. By Thursday afternoon, the sign was removed by the Department of Transportation.

Henwood hopes an accurate sign is put in the right location soon.

"I mean it don't take a great big genius, well I guess it does, to spell it right, but you know it's no great amount of money to put a sign back up there. It's just a lack of concern by politicians," he said.

"Without these signs, I mean your heritage is gone. People aren't knowing where any place is or what it is or why it's called that. You know, all this stuff takes roots."

Minister says 'we do care'

Transportation Minister Geoff MacLellan says the bungled sign, as well as the need for more signs in the Melville area, will be addressed.

"Communities are very unique to the people who live in them, so we all take a lot of pride in our home community, where we're from and what that means about us as people. So when you hear someone upset that their name was misspelled on directional signage, I can certainly accept the frustrations and appreciate where it comes from," he said.

The minister said his department will be speaking with residents about what else needs to be done in Melville to ensure proper signage is put in place.