Countryside campaigners CPRE [1] are protesting about the latest unwanted addition to rural scenery – one that compromises road safety.

An increasing number of advertising signs are cluttering roundabouts – and the local authorities responsible for the roundabouts are actually encouraging them.

This month the Government issued a tough new policy on unauthorised roadside advertising alongside major roads, and highlighted that over 300 adverts have been removed from alongside major roads in the past year [2].

A report on South Oxfordshire District Council’s backing for roundabout adverts and other councils who are running similar schemes is available at: www.cpre.org.uk/news/media-centre.

But at the same time, a growing number of district and county councils across England are now allowing additional countryside clutter on other roads as a means as raising extra money.

In some cases sponsorship signs are appearing at every roundabout exit – adding to the growing amount of visual clutter on our roads. Investigations by CPRE have uncovered that often such signage does not have the necessary consent. Even if it does, we believe that such a consent should have been refused. [3]

Mike Tyce, campaigner for CPRE Oxfordshire, said: ‘South Oxfordshire District Council maintained that it could erect signs without the necessary consent and against its own policies. It then had to back down when we presented it with a clear legal opinion that it was wrong, but still hasn’t removed the adverts in question.

‘If a Council cannot abide by its planning policies and national laws, how can we trust it to protect the countryside.’

Paul Miner, CPRE’s Planning Campaigner, said: ‘We’re disturbed that a growing number of local authorities appear to think it is a good idea to clutter our roads with often unauthorised sponsorship signs. The Government and the RAC Foundation have clearly stated that we need to get a grip on roadside clutter because of damage to our countryside and the threat to road safety.

‘Local councils need to go through the planning process – and give proper consideration to the views of the public, and the effects on the countryside and on road safety.’

Paul Miner concluded:

‘If the sponsoring companies really want to make a difference, perhaps they could sponsor a programme of reducing the number of unnecessary signs on our roads, and ensuring that the ones we do need aren’t obscured by overgrowth, in return for publicity on printed council literature. Instead, we’re seeing yet another step towards the cluttering of our countryside, and yet another potentially hazardous distraction for drivers.’

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NOTES FOR EDITORS

1. CPRE, the Campaign to Protect Rural England, is a charity which promotes the beauty, tranquillity and diversity of rural England. We advocate positive solutions for the long-term future of the countryside. Founded in 1926, we have 60,000 supporters and a branch in every county. President: Sir Max Hastings. Patron: Her Majesty The Queen.

2. Department for Communities and Local Government, Circular 03/2007, was issued on 29 March 2007. Paragraphs 147-148 of the Circular refer to advertisements alongside motorways and major roads, stating that ‘the road safety and amenity issues raised by these advertisements mean that it is unlikely that express consent to display them would be given’. In an answer to a Parliamentary Question by Ben Chapman MP on 5 March 2007, Yvette Cooper MP, Minister for Housing and Planning, stated that over 300 unauthorised advertisements had been removed across England in the previous 12 months as a result of local planning authority action.

3. CPRE investigations in South Oxfordshire have established that, where a sign mainly consists of an advertisement for a sponsoring company and without information or instruction on behalf of a local authority, it is commercial advertising and therefore needs ‘express consent’ (an application for a type of planning permission). Government Circular 03/2007, Appendix B, paragraph 1, states that ‘particular consideration should be given to proposals to site advertisements at points where drivers need to take care, for instance at junctions and roundabouts’.