Digital billboard given final sign off

The design for Richmond’s first digital billboard has now been finalised, but the news is not being welcomed by those opposing light pollution.

The digital billboard, sought by Bekon Media, is expected to be erected around August or September this year. It will sit above the intersection of Gladstone Rd/SH6 and Queen St in Richmond – one of Tasman’s busiest, and most dangerous, intersections.

Expected to measure 7 metres wide by 3.5 metres tall, the billboard will be placed above the PetMart building on 332 Queen St.

The billboard was originally going to reach 8.8 metres above the ground level, but structural upgrades were found to be needed for the building to allow for wind loading.

Tasman District Council this month approved a consent variation to allow the billboard to be partly placed on the existing building rather than entirely on a purpose-built parapet, so it will instead only reach 6.8 metres above ground level.

A shorter parapet will still be built behind the billboard to mitigate impacts on the area’s amenity.

An estimated 30,000 vehicles use the intersection each day, though the billboard would only be visible to traffic heading northeast on Gladstone Rd, towards Nelson.

“We’ve received strong interest, especially considering we haven’t started marketing it yet,” says Bekon Media director Simon Jerard.
But not everyone was onboard with the billboard.

Ralph Bradley chairs the Top of the South Dark Sky Committee which is responsible for the Wai-iti Dark Sky Park.

The park is New Zealand’s first internationally accredited dark sky park and is located 19 kilometres south of the intersection.

“It’s a step above what we would like, really. We oppose the thing on principle,” Ralph says.

Nighttime light readings at the park had doubled between 2020, when it was established, and 2023, which Ralph ascribed to the development of more subdivisions in Richmond.

“Any light within 25 kilometres of the park is going to affect what we see above us out here,” he says.

“If we don’t do something, we’ll lose our status altogether.” Ralph had opposed the billboard application which helped to halve the billboard’s nighttime luminance level, but that was still higher than international dark sky standards.

“Children are going to grow up without ever seeing the Milky Way, and we think that’s a shame, to mess it up. All we need to do is turn the lights off or turn them down.”

If Tasman had explicit rules to mitigate the effects of lighting, like those in Kaikōura, Ralph says the billboard wouldn’t have gotten the go-ahead.

He was “hoping” the council would do more to limit light pollution, like it had committed to in a memorandum of understanding with the park, and other councils had begun doing.

The council said it had updated the area’s reserve management plan to recognise the dark sky designation and included relevant policies to maintain dark sky values. Tasman’s street lights also meet best practice guidelines.

A lighting engineer will ensure that the digital billboard will abide by the luminance parameters outlined in its resource consent. Ralph also wondered how the billboard wouldn’t be a “terrible distraction” at the intersection. He was not alone. The billboard received 27 submissions when it was publicly notified last year, all in opposition. Distracted drivers and traffic safety were key concerns for submitters. Simon says Bekon understood the concerns which was why the company engaged “two of New Zealand’s most experienced traffic engineers” to alleviate concerns.