City says bill posters will be prosecuted

Companies using bill posters to illegally advertise on Sydney streets are on notice to stop their practices or face fines of more than $1500 per poster.

To combat the problem the city has written to 130 known offenders warning them to stop polluting or face the consequences with enforcement action to commence from November 10.

The warning comes ahead of a City of Sydney plan to clean up Sydney’s streets many of which are littered with bill posters which damage the environment and cost millions of dollars of ratepayers’ money to remove.

Garry Harding, the City of Sydney’s director of City Services said bill posters are one of the most significant urban pollution problems faced by the Council.

‘Last financial year we removed more than 340,000 bill posters covering about 112,000 square metres from hoardings, telegraph poles and street signs,’ Mr Harding said.

‘To put this into context, that’s the equivalent of about 438 tennis courts, 184,000 sheets of A4 paper, 60 trees or about five tonnes of paper. And that’s just in 12 months.

‘In the past fours years removing bill posters has cost City of Sydney ratepayers more than $6 million.

‘Apart from the number of trees being cut down to create these posters, they look ugly, deteriorate quickly, and have the potential to wash into the stormwater system polluting our Harbour.’

Under the Protection of the Environment Operations Act bill posting is considered illegal because it is a form of pollution. Councils can issue fines directly to the venue responsible for producing the bill poster.

Fines include a prevention notice of $320 once Council seizes the bill posters with subsequent offences attracting fines of $750 for individuals and $1500 for organisations.

‘The vast majority of bill posters removed by City of Sydney workers are produced by large corporate venues and companies,’ Mr Harding said.

Community notices such as garage sales, lost pets and local fetes are not being targeted.

The City of Sydney has installed eight poster pillars on popular city streets as part of a 12-month trial to provide a legitimate location for notices and posters. The posters will be removed on a weekly basis.