Consent obtained for the first digital billboard in Richmond

Simon Berry and Babette Morris worked with a multi-disciplinary witness team to successfully obtain resource consent for Bekon Media Limited to establish the first digital billboard in Richmond, on the very busy intersection of Queen Street and State Highway 6.

NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi opposed the application lodged on traffic safety grounds, due to concerns about potential distraction for drivers using the left-turn slip lane at the intersection and ‘dominance.’ Local submitters also raised traffic safety issues and concerns about the effect of the digital billboard on amenity values. A few submissions also raised concerns about the effect of lighting from the digital billboard on the Wai-iti Dark Sky Park, several kilometres away. The Tasman District Council’s section 42A report recommended that consent be declined on traffic safety and amenity grounds.

Significant amendments were made to the proposal to address the concerns, including re-orienting the billboard so it would not be seen from the slip lane; increasing the dwell time from 8 seconds to 30 seconds; constructing a parapet behind the billboard to address amenity issues; and reducing the night time maximum luminance levels.

These amendments were the result of constructive engagement with Tasman District Council and NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi’s experts, which achieved a large measure of agreement and NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi withdrew its opposition.

NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi’s approach to this application reflects a clear shift away from blanket opposition to digital billboards on the flawed assumption that digital billboards are inherently a traffic safety hazard due to driver distraction (as reported in our Updates in relation to digital billboards in Wellington and Timaru in March 2023 and Rotorua in October 2023), to one of focussing on the specific traffic safety issues arising.

“I was pleased to see that NZTA has shifted away from its approach of opposing digital billboards based on driver distraction and ‘human factors’ issues. In the context of this application, there was a greater focus on the specific issues arising which enabled a practical and commonsense solution to be arrived at. The Out of Home Advertising Industry will welcome that shift and we look forward to working constructively with NZTA in relation to future applications,” says Simon Berry.

As a result of the amendments, the Council’s independent planning consultant altered her recommendation to one that consent could be granted, based on a largely agreed set of conditions.