Minister to clamp down on illegal outdoor advertising

Planning Minister Yvette Cooper today launched a new national database to expose companies who advertise illegally outdoor as part of new measures designed to enable local councils to crackdown on repeat offenders.

Local planning authorities across the England will have access to the new national database, enabling them to track offenders with those companies prosecuted for repeat offending being “named and shamed” on the site. The database is designed to help enforcement officers to build cases for prosecution within their regions.

Councils will also be given more power to tackle those companies who advertise illegally particularly on the nation’s roadsides following the introduction of a series of regulations designed to improve the arrangements for controlling outdoor advertisements.

There have already been a number of successful prosecutions, with Stockport removing 243 illegal advertisements in the past 12 months but ministers are calling for a more proactive approach to be adopted nationwide.

Cooper says: “Local councils have got the power to act and I want to see more taking action so we don’t simply see these trailer ads moving from one field to another across the local council boundaries.”