Monday, July 31, 2006
CURBING PROTEST
Call for curb on billboards blighting the countryside
By Valerie Elliott,
Countryside Editor
A CRACKDOWN on roadside billboards that blight the countryside and distract drivers has been ordered by the Government. There is particular concern about farmers and landowners who allow lorry trailers festooned with advertisements to park in their fields alongside motorways and other main routes.
Yvette Cooper, the Planning Minister, is urging councils to take action against advertisements by roads and to ensure they are safe and within the law. She also wants councils to set up a database of persistent offenders who display illegal advertisements and posters.
Ms Cooper wants planning officers to work closely with the Highways Agency to ensure that advertisements are not a risk to motorists. The move has been prompted by a huge postbag to MPs criticising the way advertising posters are spoiling the countryside and causing driving hazards. This is believed to have been inspired by intensive lobbying by the Campaign to Protect Rural England.
Billboards for kitchens, bathrooms, computers, the internet, second-hand cars, hotels, supermarkets, fast-food chains and housing developments are strewn in fields by main roads and motorways.
Rural campaigners, however, fear that the crackdown may be an attempt to silence the hunting community, who are determined to overturn the ban on their sport. Official Countryside Alliance posters to save hunting and unauthorised anti-Blair displays are frequently spotted along motorways in the main hunting areas.
Tim Bonner, for the alliance, said: “The alliance supports the enforcement of existing planning regulations. We hope, however, that this is not an attempt by the Government to silence the rural minority. Ministers might not like being reminded of the folly of legislation like the hunting Act when they are being driven along motorways, but roadside banners are a legitimate form of protest.”
Farmers insist that they need the vital income from letting sites to advertisers to boost their profits and remain viable.
Ms Cooper told The Times that she had noticed a growth in advertisements along the M62 and A1 near her Pontefract and Castleford constituency that were a distraction while driving. She denied that there was a move to silence hunt supporters, adding: “I haven’t noticed many hunting signs along the M62 between Hull and Manchester.”
She wants advertisers to go through the planning system and to consult their local council before setting up a billboard. “We’re not saying there should be no roadside ads, but they’ve got to be checked and must be safe so they do not distract drivers,” she said.
By Valerie Elliott,
Countryside Editor
A CRACKDOWN on roadside billboards that blight the countryside and distract drivers has been ordered by the Government. There is particular concern about farmers and landowners who allow lorry trailers festooned with advertisements to park in their fields alongside motorways and other main routes.
Yvette Cooper, the Planning Minister, is urging councils to take action against advertisements by roads and to ensure they are safe and within the law. She also wants councils to set up a database of persistent offenders who display illegal advertisements and posters.
Ms Cooper wants planning officers to work closely with the Highways Agency to ensure that advertisements are not a risk to motorists. The move has been prompted by a huge postbag to MPs criticising the way advertising posters are spoiling the countryside and causing driving hazards. This is believed to have been inspired by intensive lobbying by the Campaign to Protect Rural England.
Billboards for kitchens, bathrooms, computers, the internet, second-hand cars, hotels, supermarkets, fast-food chains and housing developments are strewn in fields by main roads and motorways.
Rural campaigners, however, fear that the crackdown may be an attempt to silence the hunting community, who are determined to overturn the ban on their sport. Official Countryside Alliance posters to save hunting and unauthorised anti-Blair displays are frequently spotted along motorways in the main hunting areas.
Tim Bonner, for the alliance, said: “The alliance supports the enforcement of existing planning regulations. We hope, however, that this is not an attempt by the Government to silence the rural minority. Ministers might not like being reminded of the folly of legislation like the hunting Act when they are being driven along motorways, but roadside banners are a legitimate form of protest.”
Farmers insist that they need the vital income from letting sites to advertisers to boost their profits and remain viable.
Ms Cooper told The Times that she had noticed a growth in advertisements along the M62 and A1 near her Pontefract and Castleford constituency that were a distraction while driving. She denied that there was a move to silence hunt supporters, adding: “I haven’t noticed many hunting signs along the M62 between Hull and Manchester.”
She wants advertisers to go through the planning system and to consult their local council before setting up a billboard. “We’re not saying there should be no roadside ads, but they’ve got to be checked and must be safe so they do not distract drivers,” she said.
