Old Selbornians Club has allowed a BCM advertising leaseholder to push aside eight small local advertisers and replace them with behemoth billboard erected partially on their property — for exactly the same money.
The extra cash in the deal will come if the Pretoria-based outdoor firm is able to get a long-term corporate to buy the space.
Then there is the promise of more cash, Old Selbornians Club manager Andrew Jenkins explained. He declined to say if this was a clause in the agreement.
The structure is empty, bent and gaunt now.
Feeling set upon by the questions asked by the Off Track journalists, Jenkins queried why their club was being scrutinised when there were other clubs and businesses who were doing the same deal.
“Why should we be the only one?” he said.
However, the billboard is one of the most blaring — it curves around about 75m metres of Pearce Street and totally destroys the view enjoyed by motorists at the busy intersection of rolling coastal forest and the ocean.
Jenkins gave this view, expressed by a number of drivers, short shrift saying they should “concentrate on their driving”.
However, one driver, also an Old Selbornian athlete, who asked not to be named, said the “skyscraper” had cut out off the view and later became “such a block that I don’t see it any more”.
Jenkins said they were asked by BCM if they could put metal support stays on a circular downhill-facing 3m strap of the club’s land.
The club had agreed and a deal was signed with an agency in Pretoria in which all the eight pre-existing smaller advertising on the fence would be replaced with the large billboard.
He said the advertising company had agreed to “compensate” (pay) an equal amount to the annual fees charged to the smaller advertisers, and if a major corporation used the billboard, Old Selbornians would be paid a bit more.
The extra amount the club would earn was unknown since this had not yet happened. “There is no guarantee but we are hoping to get more.”
The club had settled with the smaller advertisers who lost two months’ advertising.
He said the sign was now empty because the Tsoga Sun Hemingway’s Casino special was over.
However, the monster Monday August 8 gustfront had “loosened” a piece of the frame holding down a wind-deflecting “sail” which was strapped over the back of the board.
The structure was also damaged when a motorist, who is unknown to him, crashed into one of the central uprights on a Saturday night two weeks ago.
He was aware of public complaints about the billboard, but said they fell outside of the club’s responsibility.
He said the new billboard also had the additional benefit of securing one section of the club’s perimeter. He said there were many illegal bush dwellers in the area.
However, thieves had already hacked off 9m² of signage material.
DA BCM caucus leader Sue Bentley said: “Old Selbornians should never have been allowed it — the view from there towards the sea should have been viewed as an asset of East London — but natural beauty that brought pleasure to so many has been trumped by money for a few which is not acceptable.”
Another prominent athlete, who asked not to be named as she had business interests in the sports world, said the billboard was an “eye sore”.
“Is it really all about the money? What about the road and traffic bylaws regarding the size of billboards at intersections and overhead on motorways? Surely it’s a distraction that can cause accidents?”
Despite sympathy for much-needed funds after Covid-19, “surely Old Boys club would have considered the aesthetics of putting up a structure like that on their property? It adds to the visual pollution in a collapsing municipality with overgrown parks and pavements, potholes, cable theft; litter and crumpling buildings and infrastructure.
"BCM is showing a lack transparency in terms of the money received for these outsize billboards. We are already so bombarded with social media why do we need these enormous billboards in our face? They are already subject to theft leaving empty structures standing like massive construction sites.”
DispatchLIVE
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.