Your views: Billboards in Auckland's CBD

Should councils ban billboards as the Auckland City Council suggested?


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Alan Wilkinson

There needs to be a limit on the restraints bureaucrats can place on the use of private property. We need an effective constitution or we will continue turning this country slowly but surely into a big bleak gulag enslaved to the "we know best" brigade. If you don't like a billboard, don't buy the product and tell the seller why you are boycotting it. But also accept that you are not the only person in the city and don't have the right to control everyone else's options and preferences.

Peter

I recently moved home with my Italian girlfriend who asked: "Why is everything in Auckland covered in advertising? - it looks so ugly". I fully support a reduction in advertsing and signage in the CBD. There are still a number of beautiful streetscapes and buildings in Auckland to be enjoyed. In other parts of the world, these would have been preserved in the first place so good on the council for making this change. Better late than NEVER. Why would you oppose it? - do you like being 'advertised' to everywhere you go?

Tim Wilkes

Will the council keep this vote secret too?

James Walker

Being a 16 year old who doesnt care about anything polical, i feel i must say something to prevent the banning of billboards, its ridiculous! They add character and flavour to an otherwise boring and bland city, when i go to the city i enjoy getting lost in the bright and colourfull billboards, without them it will look boring and uninviting, cities are suppose to dazzle and excite! If you dont like them, dont go to the city!

Mischa

Please give us more of Dan Carter in his underware!

Tim Jones

Will they ban giant moving billboards called busses as well? Drivers would have to cover up all advertising as they enter the CBD, then free the advertising as they leave. How grand.

Harold Merriman

If the current council and its predecessors had done their jobs properly, I would agree with banning billboards, because we would still have a beautiful city characterised by some unique 19th and early 20th century architecture, (such as, for example, the 1916 mansion in Remuera that was bulldozed last week). But what are the billboards allegedly defacing? Buildings that could be anywhere in the world, that are for the most part characterless, soulless monstrosities that celebrate the empty pursuit of wealth to the exclusion of all other human values. Leave the billboards alone - they fit in perfectly with Auckland the way it is.

Sean Lowcay

Absolutely they should ban billboards in certain parts of the city. I'm a kiwi based in Singapore and you can see the disastrous mess that is resultant of an advertising industry (failing at) policing itself on Orchard Rd. What is presented to pavement stompers here is a clamouring, visually assaulting, statement of rampant and incredibly dull consumerism propaganda. But my problem with Auckland billboards is less about "beautification issues” and more to do with driving safety issues. I think banning the massive billboards that are visible from the motorway as you enter Auckland CBD from the North and pass over Newmarket would be largely all that is needed. Those signs are quite distracting when trying to keep focussed on driving though there. More general billboardage around the areas in question is less of an issue for me.

Peter Wilson

Absolutely in agreement with the Council! I am an artist, and I cannot see the natural landscape for the billboards everywhere on a drive. Instead we are confronted by political opinions behind some cheap advertisements. Half of these boards are not even advertisements, and some do definitely provoke a moral consideration. There are enough rubbish on the airways already, and please don’t litter the scene for sights as well.

Robert Carmichael

I want to know when is this council going to stick to its core business of running this city properly.

John Poole

Re billboards, every one is missing the point here I stand to be corrected, but isn't advertising a Tax deductible item on ones Tax return, if so then we are all paying to be bombarded with this visual pollution, now I have no quarrel with a Tax break for instance to put your "shingle" up on your place of business or even on the vehicles used for said business, anything else should be paid for out of the profits of the business, hoadings that take up the length of a rail bridge, or several floors of a high rise building are completely unacceptable, like wise sandwich boards on the pavements.

Keith Shackleton

Billboards down, please. I've never been influenced by one, and never will be. Let's make the CBD look better.

Jan Willem Strijker

Streets in New Zealand are cluttered with signboards. There seems to be no regulation and any-one can erect a sign board on side paths, road verges and on buildings. It is ugly and cheap looking. Sometimes business try to outdo each other and signs becoming larger. That's what the ARC, NSCC and ACC should be looking at. When was the last time you drove along Browns Bay Road or try Rosedale Road. You'll see what I mean.

Kerilyn

I think it makes towns and cities more colourful adds to the city charm. its makes walking through town more interesting.

Marc

Instead of "in-your-face" giants, how about some innovative new ad mechanisms that go beyond what every other market does - do we have to be like NY, London, etc.???

David Seymour

Billboards are attached to private property by entrepreneurs who believe that their presentation will pay for itself by appealing to others. It is the beauty of free enterprise: People go out on a limb to offer something others may find useful, and they survive only if they succeed in appealing to others.

Billboards must get public approval from week to week, otherwise they lose money and are removed. If only our councillors were as accountable. Unfortunately we are stuck with bureaucrats and petty politicians who don't value creativity, meritocracy, and voluntary exchanges. They'd rather impose their vision of what everyone else's life should be like through the political process. The important thing is that enough people remember this inconsistancy and treat the offending councillors like an unprofitable billboard at next year's elections.

David Thomas Newton

Finally some refreshingly good thinking. Less advertising can only be a good thing. The only people concerned are people like Billy Apple, who has made a career out of the empty branding we call bad art. Its obvious what their motivations are. The city is not just about spending money, contrary to popular belief.

John Utanga

I can't believe the council hasn't got anything better to do. My rates went up this year, why not spend the time & my money focusing on doing more productive things like finding out how we can get our CBD waterfront back from the port Nazis! I drove down Queen St this mornig imagining what it would look like without the colour of the billboards etc. This town, yes town, would look very dour indeed. It'll look just like the retirement village our city councillors belong in. Come on you fogeys get with the 21st century!

Chris Griffiths

The controls being considered by the ACC are due to the outdoor advertising industry's failure to demonstrate any sort of restraint in their quest for advertising revenue. Tim Simpkins who represents these advertisers is quoted as saying "up to 150 jobs and $70 million is at stake". If this is true then each of these workers is generating $4.6 million of revenue annually for these companies! This is all about the advertising industry trying to protect a lucrative "cash-cow", which we as consumers pay for through higher-priced goods.

Marcel de Ruiter

Will the ban include hoardings during council elections? Muppets!

David Quinn

Just goes to prove (yet again!!) that the majority of politicians at local body and government level are totally out of touch with the real world. While they are at it why not ban all vehicles except bikes from the roads that way they can fix our congestion problems without spending any more money on roads and motorways and turn the motorways into skateboard parks. Perhaps Fiji has got the right idea!

Mike Steeneveld

Not content with denuding Queen St of mature greenery for the next decade, the Council now wants to remove the remaining colour in the central city. I would expect the destruction of private property rights without compensation from this bunch of we-know-best nannys. But what a soulless PC world they want us to live in!

Bomber

Of course advertising should be banned from our public space. Why would we willingly allow visual pollution like this to scream out sales pitches to us all day and everyday while we walk around our public space? Replace these shrill marketing techniques with public works of art, and shame on all those who would willingly sell our public spaces so cheaply. www.tumeke.blogspot.com

Roger Hawkins

I attended the council meeting on Thursday 14 Dec. What shocked me the most was that there was very clear desire expressed by both the Signs industry representatives and the Billboard industry representative to meet with the councillors in advance of the vote on the new by laws. The intention being, to collaboratively draft a proposal that could go to the full council, WITH industry support.

(It should also be noted that both the Signs and the Billboard representatives had just two days notice of the changes and were given just 10 minutes to present their case). The council rejected even the idea of consultation at this stage with the key stake holders, with the notable exception of Councillors Raffills, Millar and Armstrong (all of whom spoke intelligently and with consideration to a wide range of issues, against the proposal). Even worse, in order to be able to argue later that they have in fact consulted with the stakeholders Ms Fryer put in place a group of councillors who would be seen to meet with the industry players at a much later date and just before the by law is introduced. Without exception, the councillors on THAT planning group are already clearly to the left in the banning of Billboards corner so in fact nothing will change, except that they will be able to say we consulted, when in fact given the biased loading on their side the result is a foregone conclusion. Is this democracy in action? It certainly isn't how I would have expected a democratically elected council to act. Perhaps the Billboards that are allowed in the city before the next election should encourage Auckland ratepayers to vote for a council that understands democracy and commerce and further, is not so ideologically driven as to push through such idiotic, left wing Bylaws without due and considerate process.

Mike Street

Agree - provided that for every bill board removed an ugly apartment building is removed too

Sue

The Councillors need to travel to Asia, Australia and UK and see the billboards that are everywhere in their major cities. The billboards in Bangkok are massive. They do not detract from the character of the cities. They enhance them. It is part of city living as far as I am concerned. They should be concentrating on far more important issues like reducing our rates (tax) and giving us better value for the money we pay.

Ian Pallas

Surely the real blots on the landscape of downtown Auckland are not the billboards which generally add colour and life, but the many ugly and badly designed buildings which have been permitted by successive councils and their staff. It's time this council started thinking about what their ratepayers actually want, instead of wielding power for the sake of it.

Mike Parker

Ms Fryer and the other councillors want to ban billboards because of their visual pollution. Yet these are the people responsible for allowing Auckland to become one of the ugliest Western world cities. Developers were allowed to build the sort of hideous apartments at the bottom of Anzac Ave that have blocked out the sun and harbour views. They need to be chucked out next election.

Shirley Remnant

Go to New York councillors and ask what the terms of lease are for the major buildings in Times square. Right - a lessee has to put up advertising as directed - and ohh is not New York a vibrant city. Yes! Wake up Auckland councillors - ditch the conservatism and p.c. and get real.- wake up !!

James Kellow

Please pass on my regards to council and tell them to pull their heads in, stop messing about with signs, trees etc and concentrate on important tasks like roads and containing rates.

Sue Smith

Billboards need to remain. I can’t think of any city I have visited that does not have them.

Robert Gattsche

i have just recently moved to Auckland and i think it is a beautiful city.There are things that make this city what it is today,like Eden park with it's sporting history and Aucklands volcanos and sky city and it's harbours.What i am trying to say is that some of the buildings that make this city aren't the most prittiest to look at,the layout of them are just cheep and ugly the billboards brighten them up we need something to hide the greyness of them.If you take away the billboards everyone who visits this city will see how uninspiring the architichure is,citys like Paris have way more history than ours and there buildings are way more inspiring to paint than ours "we will see how many people we can cram into a 30 story appartment highrise and try and build it as cheep as we can" this is what Aucklands sky line is turning into ,just look at those ugly highrises by Auckland UNI they are gray and depressing.DO NOT TAKE THE BRIGHTNESS OUT OF AUCKLAND PLEASE!!!!!

MS & BM Haslett

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We wish to strongly agree with Auckland City councillors wish to ban billboards from the city centre. Hopefully this will include an extremely horrible billboard on the corner of College Hill & Beaumont Street.It not only obstructs the view of an attractive building but obstructs light into the tenants offices - including a well known marketing firm, CAANZ. It also , like many billboards, detracts from Companies ability to advertise their own Council Approved signage on their premises. Billboards in general may be a traffic hazard, especially those ones that advertise obscene material e.g. massage parlours etc. We trust the Council will make all haste to remove these unsightly boards.

Rob

The proposed ban of advertising billboards is a threat to basic property rights and must be stopped. Commercial properties are valued on their ability to generate a future cash flow. By removing advertising billboards the cash, and therefore the value of these properties is reduced. In some cases this will have a significant financial impact to owners. Many millions of dollars of value will be destroyed. It will be an outrage if this proceeds.

Stacey Smith

We believe the Council is rushing into this decision and should defer decisions on further regulating billboards until detailed industry consultation has been completed.

James Kellow

Please pass on my regards to council and tell them to pull their heads in, stop messing about with signs, trees etc and concentrate on important tasks like roads and containing rates.

Dani Strong

In light of the headline on the front of your newspaper today, I absolutely do not think billboards should be banned. As for keeping Auckland a 'truly international city' billboards should remain in place to stay uniform with other major cities around the world that don't have these issues.

K.H.

Yes, billboards should be banned. All of them. Everywhere.

Mark

Newmarket without billboards is like newspaper without print.

Matt Tattle

What a crazy idea to just go ahead and ban all billboards in the Auckland CBD. The horrific apartment blocks the council have allowed to be built are a much bigger issue, along with traffic congestion issues, graffiti etc etc. Most billboards are a pleasure on the eye, and are in places where a vacant wall would be alot uglier. Rather than having a spine and pulling down illegal billboards which companies like OGGI consistently build without council consent, the council are penalising all billboard companies with this intended ban.

Aaron Bhatnagar

The move to ban billboards in the CBD shows up a council that is anti-business and out of touch. Promoting business activity in a CBD should add to our city's character. If heritage is a goal, then the council should work with heritage property owners to come to an agreement - not ruin property rights for all. Unfortunately, the council that wants to ban advertising is the same council that has tried and still intends to to chop down dozens of impressive trees on Queen St, demolish public art and can't even get footpath colours right without incurring the wrath of local businesses. If there is a problem with Auckland's CBD - it's not caused by advertising. It's caused by poor planning and consultation, plus the appalling judgment of politicians who are reckless, incompetent and pig-headed.

Chrissy Payne

The council must be shortsighted to ban billboards in key strategic areas. Outdoor is an effective medium and allows brands to provide messages that are relevant to the consumer and often provide a little humour in what is a busy society. Brands that do support the outdoor medium are targeting the demographics within these areas and often have stores near the billboard location such as the likes of the Shopping Centres. To ban outdoor within the CBD will reduce the support to this medium considerably and will no doubt jeopardize jobs within the billboard operator field. The Council has recently gone through the process of enforcing all billboard operators to comply with their standards and register all billboard sites so that they meet the legal requirements of the Council. This seems a pointless and expensive exercise if billboards are about to become redundant in the CBD. This seems to be a very reactive response to a focus on the CBD which in my mind does not, and has not had a clear vision. The Auckland CBD lacks personality and a hub unlike other cities, and has not had a proactive town plan to provide more aesthetically pleasing buildings and preserve heritage. Over the years many buildings have been destroyed and replaced with inferior architecture, and most billboard sites do not detract the look of the building – maybe the Council should have considered this before approving the sites in the first place.

James Taylor

They are a landmark scar.

John Rogers

Didn't they have a law against them a few years ago? Just another HO Hum.

Martin Edinborough

The proposed ban on Billboard advertising is just plain ludicrous. Yet again the disfunctional departments of the Auckland City Council show they are still capable of presenting inept and totally ridiculous proposals,this is just another example that there are too many petty bureaucrats employed, and most of them are spending too much time trying to justify their cushy jobs and inflated salaries.

Suzanne Hendry

Absolutely not. This country has far too many regulations as it is. Many of these billboards are on private land so the council needs to butt out and get on with things they were elected to do. Why should one or two councillors who don't like billboards in their area be allowed to DICTATE to the rest of us. Advertising is a necessary evil and many of the billboards are excellent. This is the city and we are moving forward, not backward as these councillors would like us to do.Long live the entrepreneur.

Grant Watson

I would like to register my opposition to the proposed changes to the rules governing billboards.Almost all of these are on buildings with no heritage or architectural merits and in fact one of my colleagues commented that in many cases the visual pollution is the building the council allowed to be put up not the billboard.

The comment that the spending on outdoor advertising will just shift to other media ignores the impact on businesses which service this growing industry only and the proposal will put their business and employees at risk. Once again a council proposal seems to demonstrate a complete lack of understanding of business and perhaps a contempt for business.

Advertising is part of our society despite what some councillors might wish to the contrary and in fact some advertising adds to our culture and nation building - e.g. the Tui Yeah right campaign, the L&P campaign and looking way back the Chesdale cheese adds which became our unofficial anthem. I think the council should think again.

Josh White

So the Auckland City Council's urban design panel have yet another plan to "beautify" the CBD. Only this time it's bollocks. A city's billboards add to the charm and colour of the place. A city without signage is, as Mark Champion said, going back to Eastern Europe under Soviet rule. And the fact that the council also want to control shop signage is even worse. If a business has legal access to operate out of a building, they should also have the right to display advertising material of their preferable size and location. Billboards have become ingrained in popular culture. The council will be facing huge opposition on this bill. It is yet another step in the ladder to a "nanny-state" New Zealand. Government, whether local, provincial or national, should not have the right to control the position and size of signage on private property. That is really going one step too far. Hopefully the Auckland City Council will see some sense this time. Or I could just keep dreaming.

Andrew Lockerbie

I agree with the council that billboards are not attractive. Instead of removing them in order to improve the image of the city, why not relocate them to the more ugly apartment blocks that were built with non-notified consent? This would have the effect of disguising a visual outrage to the benefit of all concerned.

Dr John Parkinson

As someone who is researching public space in cities around the world, I support the ban on billboards. New Zealand -- and Auckland in particular -- has some of the most "privatised" public space in the developed world, with few opportunities to escape the demands of businesses. This is a problem because it undermines a sense of pride in a city, a sense of civic togetherness that other cities, notably Wellington, Melbourne, Vancouver, Barcelona, Berlin and many others work at maintaining. It's worth noting that London has strict billboard controls, and I don't see the UK advertising business collapsing under the strain. Auckland City Council is to be applauded for taking public space seriously.

Robyn Clark

The headlines in this morning paper to get rid of billboards in the Auckland City area is ridiculous. Billboards are in all main centres throughout the world. Advertising is a major part of everyday life!!

Viktor Melekhine

... and I would agree with Auckland City Council on this.

Tom Higham

I believe that billboards should be banned

Paula Norman

Leave the billboards alone! Don't the Council have any real problems to sort out instead of inventing trivial ones? How about fast tracking a solution to eradicate the stench coming up from the sewers. That is far more off-putting than a few billboards. This latest idea is as precious and time wasting as replacing exotic trees with native ones just for the hell of it. Billboards create much needed revenue for businesses and are often creative and entertaining for us to look at. The real eyesores are the cheap, ugly apartment buildings that proliferate the CBD. The worst example of this is the new building in Kitchener Street opposite Albert Park. Why the Council allowed this monstrosity to be built right next to arguably the CBD's best natural feature is beyond me. Let's tear that building down and leave the billboards where they are.

Sue Vile

Reading the Herald this morning I am shocked to hear of the council's plan to remove all billboards from central Auckland. Billboards bring cities alive and are a major source of advertising throughout the world.

Rhys Lewis

he proposal to ban billboards in Queen Street and Newmarket is ridiculous. If the late 80s mirror glass buildings they obscure are now rated as 'heritage' then they need to be demolished urgently before they achieve listed status and we can never get rid of them. If the council is really concerned about protecting Auckland's beautiful views, perhaps they could start by getting rid of the mountains of shipping containers that block our views of the harbour. Who's decision was it that we should emulate some unnamed and lifeless advertising-free cities anyway? Being an 'international' city doesn't mean copying the Australians. Is this all just a setup so that some councillors can go on a fact-finding junket to Picadilly Circus, Times Square and Shinjuku?

Paul Brown

Can this council do no right? With agenda such as this no wonder we as a city can't get the big things done in time and on budget. They don't like billboards but are willing to put a giant plastic plant at the top of Nelson St…

Mitchell Hutchings

totally support any move to remove billboards from the CBD, and from anywhere else as well. They add little to our cultural capital, regardless of their subject matter. I find it ironic that while New Zealanders flock to old villages and hilltop towns throughout Italy, France and Spain, we haven't learned that one of the attractions of these places is the near-absence of commercial advertising, hoardings, signs and bilboards. The aesthetic clarity and ambience thus created is in stark contrast to our visually cluttered and crass cityscape.

Peter Barrett

Of course, if Auckland is to become a truly international city like Taipei, Pusan or Slough. They distract from the bold architectural thrust endorsed by generations of city fathers and a mother (well, a Dame)... anodyne utlitarian mediocrity. No longer should we be able to amuse ourselves with Daniel's abs or any other errant distraction. Let's appreciate the architectural glory of our inner city in its true minimalist, post-modernist, quick buck splendour. And let's go a step further. Let's declare upper Hobson St and Nelson St heritage areas now before it's too late. Future generations will marvel at the accomplishments of our apartment "architects". Their works will have become emblematic shrines to a time of rudimentary and rude commerce, a snapshot of the days when market forces ruled above goodsense and taste. Yes, let's ban anything that messes with appreciation of the true beauty of our revitalised city's public space. Tear them down!

Donna O'Meara

We believe the Council is rushing into this decision and should defer decisions on further regulating billboards until detailed industry consultation has been completed

Andrew Reinholds

I read with great hilarity Ms Glenda Fryer's comments that banning billboard advertising in the Auckland CBD would bring Auckland into line with other international cities, specifically those of a European influence. I've just returned from New York, arguably the greatest of all international cities, and of course significantly influenced by it's diverse European immigrant population. One observation was that Times Square is indeed a wonderfully uncluttered advertising environment. Every night I go to bed I say my prayers, thanking the Lord that we have such intelligent, forward thinking, nay, VISIONARY, councillors such as Ms Glenda Fryer at the helm, fearlessly guiding our city into the 21st century and beyond.

Daniel Lewis

You must be kidding me, as a kiwi living in Oz and working in the billboard industry I find this crazy to say the least. To say that Sydney and Melbourne don't have billboards in there CBDs or heritage areas is an outright lie - there are plenty and they are strategically and tastefully positioned. Comparing Aucklands architecture to Europe is a bit of a joke, you have to compare apples with apples - Europe has architecture designed over hundreds and hundreds of years designed by many of the worlds greatest minds. To compare Auckland to this is a joke, instead compare it to Sydney and believe me you can't go far in Sydney without seeing a billboard. But to ban them completely is well, to say the least, Draconian, and along with the Eden Park debacle shows what a bunch of beauracratic idiots Auckland is full of. No wonder there is a brain drain in NZ, anyone with a brain is leaving cause they're sick of being treated like they are stupid. It's always the few that spoil it for the masse! P.S. Get a life Auckland and instead of worrying about Billboards concentrate on the real issues poor, housing, health, roads.

Steve Philp

We believe the Council is rushing into this decision and should defer decisions on further regulating billboards until detailed industry consultation has been completed.

P Maxwell

I believe the Council is rushing into this decision and should defer decisions on further regulating billboards until detailed industry consultation has been completed.

John Robb

I think the removal of billboards in the city is ridiculous. I voted for this council and I'm continually surprised by the policies they come up with, still at least it's not John Banks etc.

Claire Wilson

We believe the Council is rushing into this decision and should defer decisions on further regulating billboards until detailed industry consultation has been completed.

Leigh Kenyon

It would be ridiculous to ban billboards in Auckland's CBD. They add colour and personality to what would just be a drab concrete background without them.

Julia Smith

Perhaps the council should consider the eyesore their building consents are causing on the Auckland landscape before they take away the billboards which help cover the monstrosities we are seeing erected left, right and centre. If they were worried about the view, they would have done better to stop the building of major apartment blocks along Beach Road. These not only are horrendous to look at, but they also block the ocean view for thousands of other people all up Anzac Ave and Symonds St. Pot calling the kettle black, I think so! Similarly, if the motorway system was sorted out and flowing freely, people wouldn't have time to look at billboards. But again the council has failed us. Billboards, when cleverly done, provide a momentary highlight in my commute to work. Granted, there is some terrible creative out there, but perhaps the regulations could focus on eliminating the chaff and providing quality to those who see them.

Simon Chun Kwan Chui

I cannot imagine how anyone can believe that the absence of billboards from our city centre would give Auckland "international city" status. To see what a real international city looks like, take a look at Times Square in New York, Shinjuku in Tokyo, and Mong Kok in Hong Kong. I can tell you what these places have in common: billboards and people. Bright neon and giant moving LCD billboards in the central city where there are people to see them, which is the whole point of billboards in the first place. If the council somehow thinks that revitalising the city is all about "the buildings, heritage and natural landscape," then they need to guess again. The vitality of a city equates to the vitality of its citizens, which is well reflected by vigorous economic activity, which naturally leads to plenty of advertising strewn about. A city that obstructs this is working against its own reason for existenc