What tells them apart? And when do you require consent? It seems there is a lot of confusion out there, even amongst council staff.
Here’s what we know:
A ‘sign’ is something you advertise goods or services on that are available within the property. A ‘billboard’ is something you advertise goods that are not available within the property (ie third party advertising). They might even be the same size.
Generally councils throughout New Zealand permit businesses to put up ‘signs’ of up to 5m2 as of right, without seeking consent, as this usually covers signage of the business name.
‘Billboards’ are in a different category and this is probably due to planning reasons (not safety reasons). Questioning whether the billboard will effect the character of the area by having large amounts of commercial signage up.
At Digital Signs we find there is a bit of a disconnect between the current laws and what people are actually wanting to do. You may already know that if you were to put a 32” computer screen into the front window of your local diary, and advertise businesses in town (not in the suburb), then it would technically require a resource consent (costing $30-50,000.00). The same goes for ‘signs’. Recently a Church in NZ spent $6,000 getting ‘dispensation’ to put a 7m2 ‘sign’ up because it was over the 5m2 limit.
At Digital Signs, we tend to put up any size sign, providing it is to advertise the customer’s own business, and only seek consent for commercial billboards.
Recently, we put up a 6m(w) x 3.2m(h) LED display (19.2m2) for a large Auckland customer who only wanted to advertise their business. Because this means it is technically a “Sign”, an enquiry from an Auckland Council Enforcement Officer approved of the sign after he enquired, even though it is quite large.
If you’re wanting to provide a 6m sign to a customer in your town and are unsure what the restrictions are, please give one of a Team a call on 0508 4 Video (0508 484 336) and we’d be happy to look into it for you.
Digital Signs – Supporting the sign industry in modern produce and practical legal advice.
