Alternative Billboard Bylaw Delivers Council Goals

7 May, 2007

Alternative Billboard Bylaw Delivers Council Goals

Tougher enforcement and tighter controls on amenity impacts were offered to the Auckland City Council’s billboard hearing today in an alternative billboard bylaw proposal that is backed by almost the entire outdoor advertising industry.

The APN Outdoor alternative bylaw is based on the Council’s current draft proposal, a proposal that has united the outdoor industry and its supporters in opposition to the Council.

But the APN Outdoor alternative offers Council a way forward on tighter controls on the outdoor industry while allowing the industry to continue to make a valuable contribution to Auckland’s visual landscape and commercial success.

APN Outdoor General Manager Tim Simpkins said the alternative offered clear objectives and definitions on amenity value for the industry and placed tighter restrictions on billboard location, size and lighting. It also offered tougher controls on traffic and public safety issues.

“Perhaps most important are the tougher provisions on enforcement which mean property owners, advertising agencies, the owners of the billboard content and the billboard operators are all subject to Council enforcement. Tighter timeframes for compliance also give Council more teeth for enforcement,” says Mr Simpkins.

“All of these measures have the wide support of the Outdoor Advertising Association and the other major operators including OGGI and OTW. That’s well over 90% of the Auckland outdoor industry.”

Mr Simpkins said APN had put together a team of traffic and urban designers and planners and an experienced environmental law specialist to devise the alternate bylaw. That had then been work shopped by the industry members.

“As an industry we know we can do better in meeting Council’s expectations as rightly or wrongly Council’s draconian new proposals have got our attention. Even Council acknowledges the social and economic costs of its initial proposals are significant while the idea of a total ban is unlikely to succeed given the weight of legal opinion against the Council’s proposal to remove existing property rights.

“What we are proposing is a viable alternative that allows Council to achieve its goals without fatally damaging our industry. This alternate bylaw accepts that as well as some negative impacts – which we are offering to better control - billboards also make a positive contribution to the vibrancy of our city and its economy. “Add the alternate bylaw to the industry’s suggestion of a joint working group to address issues going forward and Council has two powerful tools to manage the billboard industry.

“More importantly there is an acceptance in our industry that we have to work better with Council and there is a willingness to put aside old differences to achieve better results for Auckland. That is probably the most positive thing to have come out of this submission process.”

ENDS

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