Perth Voice Interactive

VINCENT council’s push to be a billboard-free zone has been upheld by the State Administrative Tribunal, which has refused to grant permanent approval to one of the few remaining billboards in the town’s boundaries.

The decision comes as the state government has grown increasingly reluctant to even allow councils to have blanket ad bans in recent years.

Vincent council’s had a longstanding policy against filling its domain with ads, and third-party advertising like billboards are banned save for a few rare exceptions.

One is the time-limited approval given to property owner Graham Cerini to put up billboards on his block at the corner of Loftus and Newcastle Streets.

Corner block

Because the awkward corner block on busy streets is so hard to develop, the council cut a deal with Mr Cerini in 2003 to temporarily put billboards there if he kept the block as a nice garden, preferring that to a vacant block.

Mr Cerini currently has approval to keep the billboards until 2029, but he’s sought the security of a permanent approval to secure an income in his retirement. 

Last year the council refused to grant him perpetual approval, as that’d likely deter anyone from even trying to develop on it one day if there was a solid source of billboard income. 

Mr Cerini challenged the decision in the SAT, arguing the billboard rule in Vincent’s Local Planning Scheme is missing details and definitions of what counts as ‘third party advertising’.

His lawyers also argued that state governments had become increasingly reluctant to allow councils to have a blanket billboard ban: Belmont’s recent attempt to institute a blanket ban was rebuffed.

That means that even if Vincent tried to amend its LPS to be firmer and clearer about what is  and isn’t allowed, the planning minister might not even allow it to have an anti-billboard rule and order it removed. 

SAT member Charmian Barton said the uncertainty over whether a planning minister would approve a blanket billboard ban had “are not matters that I can afford substantial weight in these proceedings”.

She said for now the signs didn’t meet the current rules in Vincent’s signage policy. Taking into account the council’s plans to firm up those rules and their vision for the block to be developed in the future, Ms Barton affirmed the council’s decision to grant only temporary approvals.

by DAVID BELL