Getting tough on outdoor advertising

Safety and environmental issues mean that regulations governing outdoor ads are to be tightened -Âa move bound to affect revenues.

Just as outdoor advertisers celebrate last year’s astounding 21.5 per cent growth in revenues, an alliance of pressure groups comes along to ruin the party.

The pressure groups are lobbying for rules on outdoor ads to be tightened by the Department of the Environment, Transport & the Regions (DETR) as it considers changes to the Town & Country Planning Regulations of 1992.

Their proposals include tighter regulations on illuminated advertising sites – such as the recently introduced scrolling, back-lit 48-sheets – new conditions to limit the size of poster displays, and to allow local planning departments to regulate laser ads.

Until now, laser ads such as FHM magazine’s picture of a naked Gail Porter that was beamed onto the Houses of Parliament, have not had to seek planning permission.

The Government’s highly publicised intentions to relax controls over advertising in the countryside last autumn, were met with fierce opposition from The Council for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE). The pressure group moved swiftly and mounted a campaign to block the move. CPRE’s campaign was a success and the Government was forced back down on its proposals.

Outdoor advertising’s journey beyond billboards into street furniture, lamp posts, traffic lights and litter bins has raised the hackles of organisations such as the Civic Trust and English Heritage. Although no change in legislation is expected to be made until September, some proposed changes have already been dropped.

Then last week a row broke out between BT and a coalition of organisations over its use of its pay-phone kiosks for advertising.

The Civic Trust, an urban environment charity, believes that in the wake of the growth in mobile-phone ownership, BT should be taking down these boxes and not using them as advertising hoardings.

This coalition – led by the Civic Trust together with English Heritage, the Suzy Lamplugh Trust and Westminster Council – has been invited to take its case for banning ads on phone boxes to the DETR.

Its objections will form part of the DETR’s recommendations and, under new legislation, BT will have to obtain planning permission from local authorities before it can put ads on its phone boxes.

The coalition has voiced several concerns over the ad sites. It argues that they are a threat to public safety, as they prevent people in the phone kiosks from seeing whether someone is lying in wait outside. It also claims that closed circuit television (CCTV) operators believe the sites make it easier for crime to flourish, as criminals are aware they cannot be seen by the cameras when they are behind the ad hoardings.

In response to the claims, BT says it has voluntarily introduced a code of practice. It will no longer put ads up in historic sites, areas of outstanding natural beauty and purely residential areas.

It also makes the point that only one side of its kiosks are posted with an ad, and is liaising with local police forces and local authorities as to where it can post ads so nothing interferes with CCTV operations.

BT will be given the chance to meet the DETR and put its case forward, but a spokesman for the Civic Trust says advertisers should think carefully before they are “tainted with issues surrounding public safety and intrusion on areas where advertising is inappropriate”.

Poster-buying specialists are seemingly uncomfortable about backing the expansion of outdoor advertising in areas where it does not “enhance the environment”.

Carole Kerman, managing director of Outdoor Connection, is cautious about growth in outdoor advertising, particularly in street furniture, unless there is an obvious amenity benefit. “If they offer value for the public then we are behind it, but if they are just there for advertising revenue and there is no benefit then no, we don’t feel they are worth it,” she says.

According to insiders many local planning departments are reporting a rise in complaints regarding light pollution from ad billboards. The increase of illuminated billboards, perceived by many as a necessary factor for the continued success of the outdoor industry, has received as many as 1,271 official complaints to local councils.

However, under the proposed changes such advertising is unlikely to be stopped, unless the light is perceived to be an intrusion such as a bright light outside a bedroom window.

Kerman says that Outdoor Connection supports a “sociably responsible manner” for outdoor lighting and adds that her company will continue to press for the redevelopment of badly illuminated boards.

Almost every month a new outdoor media company is launched exploiting such media sites as traffic control boxes, car park barriers, and street lights. These companies must believe that future revenues from outdoor advertising are guaranteed to rise, but if pressure groups such as the Civic Trust get their way, it may not be quite so rosy.