A business on Centennial Cct in the Byron Arts and Industry Estate has been stung $3,000 by Byron Shire Council after parking a bus with signage on Ewingsdale Road, despite claiming the bus was moved soon after a warning.
FallenBrokenStreet’s Justin Crawford told The Echo, ‘During the time of the construction of the roundabout, we were experiencing an extreme downturn in sales.’
‘I have a FallenBrokenStreet bus, which we take to festivals and it services the community regularly… we give away hats and beanies to the homeless and schools for fundraising etc.
‘I had noticed that Aldi had been parking their semitrailer up at the roundabout at Canvanbah, so I thought it wouldn’t hurt to drive the bus up there with a sign to try to direct traffic into the industrial zone and into our shop.
Parked on gravel
‘My bus was parked off the road on the gravel section of the roundabout, and where there are no signs stating you cannot park there. This is why I parked the bus in this spot. I left it parked for a few days.’
Crawford says after police told him to move the bus, he did so within half an hour.
Council staff told The Echo, ‘Like many other Local Government Areas (LGA) in NSW, Byron Shire Council has rules and regulations about advertising signage in public places.’
‘This is necessary to control visual pollution and inappropriate signage and this includes signs on the side of roads. Byron Shire Council can confirm that in October 2018 it issued an infringement notice to a vehicle for ‘development without consent’ for business signage on a public road that was remote from the actual business premises.This was the third infringement notice for this vehicle, with the earlier two fines for parking-related offences.’
Crawford added, ‘After all the loss of income from the roundabout then to cope with this was super annoying. The signage for the flow of traffic into the industrial estate was lacking, and was costing businesses dearly.’