Firms face crackdown on illegal advertising

COUNCIL bosses are clamping down on firms who blight the environment by putting up illegal advertising hoardings without permission.
By The Newsroom
Published 12th Jul 2010, 12:43 BST
Updated 12th Jul 2010, 12:43 BST

Selby Council says it does not want to stop hard-pressed firms drumming up extra business but it does has a duty to stop adverts becoming eyesores.

The purge follows a recent court case in which the owners of a Biggin pub admitted illegally displaying advertising hoardings in a case brought by Selby District Council's planning enforcement team.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Advertising boards for the Blacksmiths Arms had been put up along Finkle Street and Bishopdyke Road in Sherburn in Elmet. The pub owners, The Blacksmiths Arms (Biggin) Ltd, did not have consent to do so from either Selby District Council or the Secretary of State.

As such, these advertising boards fell foul of the Town and Country Planning (Control of Advertisements) Regulations 2007 and the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.

The hearing was held at Selby Magistrates' Court where council solicitor Kelly Hamblin explained the issue had been ongoing for almost a year. Despite numerous requests to take down the advertisements, they remained in place.

In mitigation, a representative from the company explained that the advertisements had been put up because of difficult trading conditions, but would now be removed.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Selby District Council's head of development services, Keith Dawson, said: "We don't want to be unreasonable when a small business wants to advertise itself, but this is about the impact these adverts had on the local area.

"We've been in contact with the company on numerous occasions over recent months to try to come to a suitable solution and, indeed, there are ways and means of getting the right permission to display advertising where this is appropriate. But no application was made to get permission for these adverts so we were left with little choice.

"The regulations are in place to protect the local environment from inappropriate development and that's what we had to bear in mind when considering whether to pursue this case."

The Blacksmiths Arms, Biggin, was given a conditional discharge and ordered to pay 200 costs.