NEWS
The Valley is “drowning in a sea of signage” according to local councillor David Hinchliffe. As part of his Clean up the Valley campaign being run in the pages of The Independent, he has highlighted the huge number of signs vying for attention, such as those above in Wickham Street, and has called for council to issue a moratorium on new signage and progressively wind back existing signage approvals.
“The Valley has more heritage buildings than any other part of Queensland outside of the CBD, but most of the time you can’t see them for the signs,” the Central Ward councillor said.
“Traders need to know that with signage ‘less is more’.
“It’s an alphabet soup of signs. “More people would see signs if there were less signs competing for attention. I’ll buy a dinner in Chinatown for anyone who can drive down Wickham Street between Gipps St and Brunswick and recall every sign. “This is a problem that’s been building for years. It’s happened under Labor administrations as well as the current council.
“Now that we have a Valley Neighbourhood Plan, let’s clean up not just the streets and gutters, but the signs. I think the signage policy needs to be rewritten to take into account heritage buildings and I will be putting that to the CEO of Council, Jude Munro.”
• Councillor Hinchliffe’s open letter to Council CEO Jude Munro on this issue was printed in our 26 May issue as part of his Grot Spot advertisement.
