A local billboard company has been given three months to move its signs from vacant land in Narre Warren.
A PORTABLE billboard company is on the move – but not by choice.
Hampton Park based company Mobile Billboards Australia had been storing its spare boards on disused land along Narre Warren-Cranbourne Road in Narre Warren until Casey Council intervened and ordered the portable advertising signs to be removed.
The business was given until this week to relocate the boards because their storage did not comply with council’s planning requirements, despite having an arrangement with the landowner to store the boards there.
Casey deputy mayor Rob Wilson moved at Tuesday night’s council meeting that council grant an extra three months, until 31 December, for the business to remove the billboards from the site, to allow them reasonable time to find a new location.
Cr Wilson said the business owner had been trying valiantly to vacate the land and the situation highlighted the shortage of properly zoned business land in Casey.
Casey planning manager Bob Baggio told the meeting the land was being used for a prohibited use and council had become aware of the issue about a moth ago.
He said he would have thought that the boards could have been relocated earlier than the three months.
Councillor Lorraine Wreford said she understood the issue but thought the matter should stay in the hands of the planning and local laws department.
“We have rules in place and I don’t think we should interfere with the process.
“It is up to the planning department’s discretion how it is handled,” Cr Wreford said.
The News contacted the business owner this week but was unable to get comment before going to print.
