The City of Sydney wants to tear down the biggest billboard in the southern hemisphere, saying it is a ‘permanent blight’ on the skyline.
Australia’s biggest outdoor media company oOh! Media, which operates the billboard, wants to keep it in place for the next 10 years, asking for a seven-year extension to its consent.
The council is dead-against the extension, writing to the NSW Department of Planning that its original purpose had been ‘lost’ and it is now ‘a permanent blight on a state-significant heritage item’.
Development director and noted architect Graham Jahn wrote that it ‘does not provide sufficient public benefit’ and must not become a permanent fixture in the skyline.
“The only benefits are now the commercial benefits associated with the revenue stream of an advertising structure that has the primary function to reinforce consumer brand names,” he wrote.
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Keith Ferrel, general manager of wide format printer Cactus Imaging, which prints new ads for the billboard every month, wants to see the iconic billboard stay where it is.
“It’s a big job and nice to get every month, and good to have in your portfolio that you print something of that magnitude in such an iconic location regularly,” he says.
The massive billboard stretching across the heritage-listed Glebe Island Silos in Sydney’s inner west was built in 1994 to promote the city’s Olympic bid and costs $250,000 a month to rent, often booked out six months in advance.
Outdoor Media Association MOVE figures say it is seen by 2.13 million people a month, mostly motorists stuck in traffic around the Anzac Bridge.
An oOh! Media spokesman says the billboard’s retention will ensure that it continues to contribute to the character of the area and its setting at Glebe Island.
“The provision of a ten-year period will ensure that we will be able to make a greater level of capital investment in sign maintenance than the overly restrictive three-year period,” he says.
The spokesman says the proposal has no impact on the heritage site or the operations of the port, and the Office of the Environment and Heritage did not raise any concerns.
The NSW Planning Assessment Commission will now decide whether to accept the proposal.
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