Lights out as council considers inner Brisbane billboard ban

“LED billboards need to be in appropriate locations, and they certainly don’t belong in character shopping areas surrounded by character homes, like Paddington,” Cr Matic said in a statement at the time.

“The current process is not good enough. It’s time for an overhaul and make them subject to more stringent assessment and a full consultation process.

“These billboards are out of character; I wasn’t meaningfully consulted, the community wasn’t consulted, and there needs to be checks and balances.”

At Tuesday’s meeting, councillors will consider an interim local law that would ban “high-impact” LED signs of greater than four square metres.

The council can establish local laws to manage a range of issues affecting the city, with an interim law to last six months or less.

A report prepared for the councillors said under current regulations, council was “currently unable to properly regulate the use of high-impact EDC signs”.

The proposed law would ban such signs outside and inside the city frame – a definition that covers sections of Bowen Hills, Newstead, Kangaroo Point, South Brisbane and Toowong – on heritage properties, or within 50 metres of a heritage property if the sign is on the same road.

Such billboards would also be banned within the council’s commercial character building or pre-1911 areas.

Under the proposed law, applicants would have to start building their advertisement board within six months of gaining approval and complete it within a year.

The law would be retrospective, with council assessing any current applications that have not yet been decided under the new definitions.

Opposition leader Jared Cassidy said for too long council had allowed billboards to operate across the city without regulation, but the law was a step in the right direction.

“But the response has to be far greater than just protecting a narrow set of suburbs where residents are forced to protest out of desperation for this council to do something,” he said.

“We need a council that genuinely listens to residents.”