TWO giant electronic billboards designed to loom over the Wray Ave/Hampton Road intersection in Fremantle have been kicked to the curb by the South Metro Development Application Panel.

The eight-metre wide signs were proposed as part of a third-storey addition to the building which currently houses Western Hearing Services, but were deemed too unsafe at what is already a dicey intersection.

The extra storey is also about five metres above heights allowable under the city’s planning scheme, and while Freo council’s Design Advisory Committee said that might be acceptable because the slope of the site meant houses at the back would only face one extra metre of wall, the JDAP wasn’t buying in.

• The proposed development on the corner of Wray and Hampton roads.

“The applicant has been notified that the animated signs are not supported in any form…but has confirmed that the signs are integral to the development and not opted to to remove them and amend the proposal,” a report to the panel said.

That may have been what prompted panel member and Fremantle councillor Andrew Sullivan, who said applicant Pinnacle Planning came armed with plenty of “complex legal and planning arguments”, to suggest a SAT appeal might be in the pipeline.

“Thanks for winning the State Govt over Andrew Sullivan. Our hero,” posted relieved Freo local Emma Jack, one of the 26 locals who wrote in opposing the application.