Pickles condemns street 'clutter'

Ministers are worried the character of urban spaces is being damaged.

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles and Transport Secretary Philip Hammond have written to council leaders calling on them to reduce the number of signs and other "street clutter".

The Government believes that in some cases traffic signs and railings are installed by councils in the mistaken belief that they are legally required.

However, although some signs are required by law, Government advice is that for signs to be most effective they should be kept to a minimum.

To help councils do this the Department for Transport is reviewing traffic signs policy and new advice on how to reduce clutter will be published later this year.

The Department for Transport said that, for example, the cathedral city of Salisbury in Wiltshire was littered with bollards, a parking area for 53 cars having 63 bollards.

Also, the removal of street clutter from Kensington High Street in west London had reduced accidents by up to 47 per cent.

Mr Pickles said: "Our streets are losing their English character. We are being overrun by scruffy signs, bossy bollards, patchwork paving and railed off roads – wasting taxpayers' money that could be better spent on fixing potholes or keeping council tax down.

The senior transport campaigner for the Campaign to Protect Rural England, Ralph Smyth, said: "Clutter needs to be tackled in both rural and urban areas.

"With every local council in England drawing up new local transport plans, this welcome move could not be better timed. Clutter is not just ugly – it's expensive and distracts drivers."

In 2006 a survey by the group's Hampshire section of a seven-mile section of the B3006 in the South Downs National Park revealed an average of 45 signs per mile.