Too soon: Candidates ordered to take down giant election billboards

Bay of Plenty Regional Council candidate Andrew von Dadelszen and Tauranga mayoral candidate Tenby Powell have breached election signage rules. Photo / Andrew Warner

Two election candidates in Tauranga have been ordered to take down their billboards for breaching election signage rules.

However, one candidate says this was down to a booking miscommunication.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council candidate Andrew von Dadelszen and Tauranga mayoral candidate Tenby Powell erected billboards on a hoarding in Hewlett's Rd, State Highway 2.

Under Tauranga's City Plan, election signage is not allowed until six weeks from the election. In this case, that would be August 26.

Tauranga electoral officer Warwick Lampp said he had cleared von Dadelszen's bus back ads, which did not feature election language, after a complaint from another candidate, but had not seen the billboard until today.

Featuring a ticked box and the words "re-elect to Regional Council", Lampp said it was clearly an election advertisement.

The sign for Powell - chairman of the Government's Small Business Council - says "Vote for Tenby Powell".

Lampp said he called both candidates this morning.

"Both are clearly election signage. I have instructed [both candidates] to take them down."

He had subsequently confirmed a worker was moving to take the signs down.

A spokeswoman for Tenby Powell said the sign was erected due to a miscommunication between them and the installers.

She said they had originally booked for the sign to go up on September 1, which was within the legal timeframe.

However, the installers had put it up for an unknown reason and when they caught wind of this, they quickly instructed them to take it down.

It was taking longer than usual to get it removed as there were health and safety rules that meant they were unable to do so when it was raining, she said.

Current regional councillor von Dadelszen's billboard has been up for weeks and Powell's joined it recently.

When approached for response, von Dandelszen said he would not make any comment, disclose how long it had been up or any detail until he spoke to the electoral officer.

Von Dadelszen had previously told the Bay of Plenty Times he believed his signage was within the rules and that he erected it before the official period because it was "cheaper".