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Auckland City deputy mayor Dr Bruce Hucker has hinted at a partial backdown on the council's controversial signs and billboards bylaw but is holding firm on calls for the chairwoman of the bylaw panel to step down.
Dr Hucker yesterday said the panel would consider good arguments from business to extend the proposed 18-month period to comply with the new bylaw.
It is the first signal the council is willing to soften the plan to ban billboards in the central city and introduce tough new restrictions on signs across the city, including banning all signs above veranda height.
But Dr Hucker rejected calls for his City Vision colleague Glenda Fryer to stand down as chairwoman of the bylaw panel after claims that she has strong views against billboards. She has denied holding anti-sign views and stressed she will genuinely listen with an open mind to submissions at the public hearings in April.
"It's my view that the perception is being fostered by the industry and is part of a broad campaign we are seeing which features billboards that have been personalised," said Dr Hucker.
Billboards of Dr Hucker and another pro-law-change councillor, Vern Walsh, have been erected in the central city by Oggi Outdoor Advertising.
Dr Hucker said the billboard industry must have money to burn and his only disappointment was that a better photograph of him could have been used on a giant billboard in Fanshawe St poking fun at his views on overseas travel.
