WINGECARRIBEE Mayor Duncan Gair was forced to remove signs advertising his business after admitting they did not comply with Council policy.
During the January 27 Council meeting, Councillor Ken Halstead held up photos of a sign advertising Cr Gair’s Fitzroy Falls business.
In the photo, the sign was placed directly under a 60kmh speed sign on the roadside.
Cr Halstead asked the mayor if the sign was Council approved, to which the mayor responded “no”.
Cr Halstead compared the mayor’s non-compliance to the way Council were handling illegal signage put up by the Werai Tea House.
In that case the owners had received a $750 fine for two signs displayed on trailers at the site.
Council general manager Jason Gordon said senior staff had met with the owners at Werai Tea Hous to discuss their concerns.
“My understanding is that this issue does go back a while, and now that the fine has been issued through the Office of State Revenue it is out of Council’s hands,” Mr Gordon said.
“We will review the matter and go from there.”
Mr Gordon said the mayor would not be fined.
“Senior staff have investigated and it appears all of the signs have been removed,” Mr Gordon said.
“It is not our policy to issue fines when things are brought to our attention in the way they were.
“As a consequence, though, I will be requesting a staff blitz on signage.”
When contacted by the News after the meeting, Cr Halstead said he did not raise the issue to embarrass the mayor but to make a point.
“I raised the matter and used his [Cr Gair’s] signage as an example to point out that there is a rule for everybody,” Cr Halstead said.
“He had some illegal signs out there and I only showed him one, but I wasn’t particularly trying to embarrass him.
“And it is not just the mayor. It is not hard to find. There are illegal signs all around the place.”
Cr Halstead said he would like to see Council revisit the policies governing signs advertising new businesses.
“What I am particularly concerned about is that people starting enterprises in either the commercial or industrial area should be given some period to put some sort of temporary attraction sign,” Cr Halstead said.
“This would be to get them up and running as a business and then certainly they have to comply with sign rules.”
Cr Gair said the non-compliant signs have been removed.
“Having it pointed out that my signage was not compliant I removed it the following day and it will not be re-erected,” Cr Gair said.
“I would expect that to go for all persons who have had their signage pointed out to them.”
Cr Gair said the policies surrounding signage should be revisited.
“I am chair of the signage committee and we haven’t met for a couple of years now,” Cr Gair said.
“There is a code in place and council has been lenient on its signage code over the last couple of years, but it would probably be a good idea for us to revisit the signage code so that all councillors are aware of the implications.
Cr Gair said anyone caught not complying with the code should be given time to take the sign down.
“I would not be in favour of persons having an immediate fine placed on them without due warning,” Cr Gair said. “We [Council] are not a dictatorial organisation but we do have codes and standards.
“The same [codes] that I have to abide by, my sign was outside that code and I have since removed it, but I think any person with an illegal sign erected should be given the opportunity to remove it voluntarily prior to a fine being issued.”
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