Blue Lights Blue

Strange as it may seem, senior Council staff seem determined to kill off, or at least interfere with, the 'Winter in Bridgetown' blue lights which were so spectacularly successful when launched last year.

The lights are due to go back on next month, but Council officers are pushing to introduce a policy, which would give them the right to dictate how the lights can and cannot be arranged. Those who wish to display the lights on the town's many Heritage-listed buildings (like the Freemasons Hotel, which I part-own) would have to pay $80 and go through an approvals process each time they wanted to put them up.

Its regulation for regulation's sake and a poke in the eye for the business people trying something innovative to bring tourists to the town. 

I'm all in favour of restrictions on advertising and signage to protect the ambiance and amenity of the town. While on Council I drove the formation of a new signs policy, but saw this process constantly undermined by concessions given to entrenched vested interests.

If the Council is serious about signs and visual pollution, why has it taken no action to remove the illegal signs which have been chained to the lampost right outside the Council offices for at least the past three years?  (They can be seen in the photo above)