Warning signs

By Jade Lawton
SMALL businesses on the Princes Highway say a VicRoads policy of stripping their signs from the roadside could force them to close.
Several businesses from Nar Nar Goon to Bunyip advertise on signs next to the highway, but VicRoads has confiscated some and marked others for removal.
VicRoads staff have placed yellow spray-painted marks on other signs, to indicate they are next on the hit-list.
It is believed that at least some of the signs had been covered by permits from VicRoads, which have now expired.
Maria Doherty, manager of the Garfield Berry Farm and Produce Market, said signs were vital to attract passing trade to the 30-year-old business, which had already been hit by the economic downturn and last year’s bushfires.
“They are basically shutting our business down,” she said.
“Once you take the signage down, we are just a normal concealed driveway. Our business needs signage – it’s not like we are putting the signs on other people’s properties.”
John Fitzpatrick, from The Bunyip Kitchen and Vineyard, said VicRoads had removed three of his signs within three months.
“There was no warning. They are doing all this with no communication, no notice, nothing. Until this happened, the signs had been there for five years,” he said.
And Andrew Clarke from Jinks Creek Winery, which is 10 kilometres off the highway in Tonimbuk, said removing the signs would give people the impression he had closed.
“People think you are shut if the signs are gone. We’ve been lobbying VicRoads for a long time, and we’ve got nowhere. I’m just stumped,” he said.
Ms Doherty said she had been told that signs were distracting to motorists.
“Are billboards in Melbourne distracting? We are sick of it … you’ve got BP (service stations) that have come into Longwarry with five signs on both sides of the highway well in advance, slip lanes, and traffic slowed down. And we only ask for a couple before our entrance,” she said. “If they take our sign, that’s it, we are done.”
Bunyip Ward Councillor Bill Pearson has written a letter of support for Ms Doherty, which she has forwarded to the State Government.
“They can’t take down all the signs … if they don’t have at least the main sign there it will force them out of business, there is no doubt about that,” he said.
“They are Aussie battlers doing the best they can.”
VicRoads did not respond to Gazette inquiries before going to press.