Council sues Telstra over flashing ad boards tacked to public phones
The City of Melbourne has rejected a Telstra bid to put up 81 flashing advertising billboards on CBD public phones saying the company was trying to exploit a legal loophole to profit from public space.
The Age last year exposed the loophole that allowed the telco to build payphones where it desired without council approval, and attach lucrative digital billboards that can earn the company as much as $8000 a week.
The council on Monday said it would also take Telstra to court to challenge a further 39 ad boards already in place, throwing $50 million of the company's revenue into doubt.
The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal action comes after Councillor Nicholas Reece said: “We are not going to sit idly by and allow the plundering of the public realm for private profit.”
Cr Reece, chair of the city's planning portfolio, said the structures were advertising billboards masquerading as payphones and should require planning approval.
“With nearly 90 per cent of Australians owning a mobile phone, it’s hard to believe there’s a need for this many supersized phone booths in the central city,” he said.
“Indeed, these new structures are more like digital billboards masquerading as phone booths on the footpaths of our city.”
One striking example is a billboard in the middle of a pedestrian corridor in Bourke Street Mall – forcing shoppers to divert around it. In another case, two billboards on Elizabeth Street sit less than five metres apart.
The City of Melbourne originally granted Telstra permission to place commercial advertising on the 39 billboards in 2016, accepting Telstra’s legal advice they would be a "low-impact facility".
But after the billboards were erected, the council changed its mind, saying the booths failed to meet the low-impact criteria and required planning approval.
An adverse finding for Telstra may result in forced removal for the billboards entirely.
The Cities of Maribyrnong, Stonnington and Yarra are equally concerned that the new Telstra structures are disrupting footpath traffic and negatively affecting the public realm.
At 2645mm high and 1090mm wide, the new structures are nearly 50 per cent larger than the previous installations.
Many city phone booths already carry two-metre advertising hoardings, but the telco wants to turn them into bright, backlit electronic versions that can flip ads every 30 seconds.
Telstra has been contacted for comment.