Wyndham council will fine election candidates who illegally display political signs on council land.
The council has referred complaints about illegally erected council candidate signage to the Victorian Electoral Commission and the Local Government Investigations and Compliance Inspectorate.
The issues were raised during last week’s council meeting by Wyndham local Matt Carr, who wanted to know what action the council would be taking against those who breached election signage rules.
Mr Carr also asked what the council was doing to recover costs it incurred in removing the signs.
Council candidates can display promotional material on private property with permission from the land owner, provided signage complies with size restrictions, but placement of candidate signage in public areas is prohibited.
Wyndham council chief executive Kelly Grigsby said that both incumbent councillors and council candidates were subject to the same rules.
“There is an enforcement policy in place that does, in fact, incur a fee and a fine in effect for signage that’s deemed to be illegal signage,” she said.
“That’s something that we’ll follow up in due course with our local laws department … the idea of that is to recoup costs.
“It’s also important to note that council have received a number of complaints that have also been forwarded onto the [Local Government] Inspectorate and also to the Victorian Electoral Commission.”
