Call to Keep City’s Bright Lights

MELBOURNE is in danger of losing its bright neon signs due to over-regulation, a city councillor has warned.

Planning portfolio chairman Cr Nicholas Reece said that famous signs like Abbotsford’s Skipping Girl and the Nylex sign in Cremorne would struggle to get a permit today.

“It’s a product of cumulative regulations over time, winding things back further and further,” he said.

“But at some point they become too restrictive and you lose something that made Melbourne special.”

Tonight, City of Melbourne councillors voted to reject a permit application from commercial property firm Fivex to continue displaying two promotional signs on its building on the corner of Flinders and Elizabeth streets.

It is expected the matter will be taken to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

A report said they “detract from and dominate significant vistas of Flinders St Station via the Yarra corridor” and can be seen from the Shrine forecourt.

Cr Reece told the Herald Sun that there was a need for regulation to stop “hideous” advertising signs, but current rules should be reviewed.

“When I was kid growing up in Melbourne it was a case of bright lights-big city. Now we are a bigger city than ever before but we don’t seem to like any bright lights,” he said.

“I want to live in a city where it is still okay to erect the Skipping Girl neon sign.”

Herald Sun

6 March 2018