Battle of the billboards at Te Ahu

Reti Boynton. PICTURE/PETRINA HODGSON

A Mana organiser says he wants to shake the hand of the vandal who bowled a row of billboards for the extra publicity the attack has given his party.

Reti Boynton said he was aware some Kaitaia residents were unhappy with the Mana hoardings on Matthews Ave opposite Te Ahu, but believed the party was "getting grief" because it was more organised than others and got the prime billboard spots first.

He started putting the billboards up at "one second past midnight" on the day the election campaign officially began. He had put up the frames a day earlier, but nothing in the rules said he couldn't put up an empty frame.

The entire row was bowled over on Wednesday last week, then two billboards were splattered with paint two days later.

However, Mr Boynton did not think vandals had singled out Mana's billboards. Those were the only incidents of the campaign.

He put the billboards back up within an hour on Thursday with the help of a vanload of passing rangatahi.

He told supporters the vandals had done the party a favour because people were now talking about the billboards.

Meanwhile, Age inquiries around the legality of the Matthews Ave hoardings have revealed a muddle of complicated and contradictory rules.

Unlike most local authorities, the Far North District Council bans election billboards on its land, including road reserves.

The Matthews Ave billboards, however, are next to a state highway, which comes under the jurisdiction of the NZ Transport Agency. The NZTA allows election hoardings next to its roads as long as they are in urban areas where the speed limit is 70km/h or less. Conditions include that the billboards do not block road signs or hinder visibility.

However, many of the hundreds, if not thousands, of billboards lining local roads in the Far North are breaching council policy.

The Far North District Council's environmental management boss, Murray McDonald, said a number of complaints had been received about election billboards, including from the Kaitaia area.

Election hoardings were temporary signs so the normal bylaw did not apply. Instead, the council had an Election Hoardings Policy prohibiting election billboards on its property. Despite that the council had decided not to remove any of the billboards on its road reserves.

"There are a significant number of these signs on council road reserves across the district. Removing these would be expensive and cause confusion for the public because many signs on state highways are legitimate and would remain in place. Also, all signs have to be removed before election day anyway and this is only nine days away," Mr McDonald said.

Instead staff had recommended the policy be reviewed before the next election.

The Far North policy was more restrictive than those of the NZTA and Whangarei District Council, which also had jurisdictions in the Northland and Te Tai Tokerau electorates. Whangarei allows election billboards anywhere on its road reserves.

Cr Mate Radich, however, was unimpressed with the council's inaction. He said a number of people, including truckies and Te Ahu staff, had approached him saying they were upset by the number of billboards at the busy Matthews Ave intersection.

He contacted NZTA staff, who assured him the billboards would be removed. Mr Radich said when contractors turned up at the site last week, however, they were "ushered away" by Mana Party supporters. The party should have asked before erecting the billboards, he said.

A 37-year-old Kaitaia man was arrested on Sunday after allegedly punching two people he accused of throwing paint on a Mana Party billboard. He was charged with two counts of assault.