AFTER more than 30 years Garfield Berry Farm may be forced to close its doors in a matter of weeks if signs taken down by VicRoads are not replaced.

Mother-and-daughter owners Francesca Ferraro and Maria Doherty have received a lot of support from local farmers and residents, but Maria told the Gazette unless the removed signs were replaced she could see the business closing down.

“At the moment we have received a lot of support from farmers and the community as well as people from far and wide, one of our employees has even started a Facebook group to save the farm,” she said.

“But without the signs we have already lost 80 per cent of our business and we cannot continue like that.

“However, we won’t go down without a fight.”

Maria said trouble over the sign had not just been a recent issue for the berry farm.

“The problem is they (VicRoads) created a design problem with access to the business when they acquired the land on the side of the highway,” she said.

“We believed we had a permit for the sign, but now they are telling us it expired in 2005 – why the hell are they only coming to us now?”

Maria said there was something deeper that what appeared on the surface and she believed VicRoads was working against small business.

“People recognise us by the strawberry and when they said that it had to come down we asked to put a logo on the brown sign put up by VicRoads – that wasn’t allowed either,” she said

“But you look down the road and the new petrol station has its logo all over the sign and can even advertise that they have a cafe and sell fruit too – it’s just not fair.”

Without signage pointing traffic to the berry farm, Maria said there had already been customers who had overshot the driveway and reversed back up to one kilometre along the highway.

“They say the sign causes accidents,” she said.

“I’m pretty sure this is much worse.”

VicRoads Metropolitan South East Regional Director Duncan Elliott said the signs were taken down as part of policy.

“The signs marked to be removed do not comply with this policy,” he said.

“VicRoads has received a number of inquiries and complaints regarding signage along the Princes Highway-Freeway corridor.

“The cumulative impact of the signs acts as a distraction for road users and is a safety concern and impacts on the general amenity of the area.”

Mr Elliott said a letter was sent to land-business owners-operators (including Garfield Berry Farm) on 11 September 2009 advising them that unlawful signs would be removed.

The letters included photographs of the signs to be removed immediately and signs that could be retained if permits were sought.

For now Maria and Francesca are trying to stay positive and keep their staff in high spirits.

“They can see that business is bad,” she said.

“Its like they are waiting for when their jobs will go and I’m trying not to do that.”