Clause 34 - Removal of placards and posters
Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Bill
4:45 pm
Mr Matthew Green (Shadow Minister, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister Local Government & the Regions; Ludlow, Liberal Democrat)
The amendment deals with the problem of over-posting, which has been made clear to several members of the Committee by Westminster city council, although I am sure that it is not only council to have done so. It has provided some interesting statistics. The difficulty is that if the law allows that something can either be removed or obliterated, obliterating can be taken to mean putting another poster over the top of the existing one, so when a council serves an enforcement notice in respect of a poster, the fly-poster can get out of it by posting another on top. To give some idea of the scale, Westminster city council say that in 2002
'''over-posting' negated enforcement of 82 per cent. of the notices served''.
In 2003, it negated 92 per cent. of the notices and in 2004 it negated 89 per cent.
Clearly, the Government do not intend to allow people to get round legislation in such a way. Removing the words ''or obliterate'' would force somebody to remove the poster. If the Government are not minded to accept this amendment, there is another option, which is to change the section so that the local authority is given the decision whether to ask for the poster's removal or its obliteration. I understand that that approach may be taken in the London local authorities Bill. It may be sensible to copy the approach used there, if the Minister is not minded to remove the words ''or obliterate'' from this Bill.
The second amendment, to which I and my hon. Friend the Member for Guildford have put our names, was suggested by the Outdoor Advertising Association of Great Britain Ltd., which has pointed out that the addition would bring the clause into line with section 10 of the London Local Authorities Act 1995. Apparently, when DEFRA consulted on the proposed Bill, that part was included but it has not been included in the published Bill. It has the effect of sorting out potential ambiguities concerning planning consent for poster sites and the argument about whether they have express or deemed planning consent. Given that the Minister is going to look into the other potential problem of definition, perhaps he could look at the matter mentioned in the amendment and see whether there is a problem, or reassure us that the provision has been found not to be needed. As I say, amendment is exactly in line with section 10 of the 1995 Act and it would make this Bill appear in the same form.