Unauthorised Advertising Keep Wales Tidy policy paper 2012
Transcript of Unauthorised Advertising Keep Wales Tidy policy paper 2012
Introduction
Fly posting and litter from discarded leaflets and newspapers are a problem on
streets throughout Wales. During the most recent Local Environmental Audit
and Management System (LEAMS) survey for 2009-10, carried out by Keep
Wales Tidy, fly posting was found on 1.8% of streets, with business litter
(including leaflets and cable ties (used to attach posters to lampposts) found
on 21.7%). Although these seem like relatively low numbers and fly posting is
not a major problem across Wales as a whole, it is an issue in City and Town
centres and can make an area feel run down, heightening the fear of crime and
creating unwelcome removal costs to the local authority.
This paper will address some of the problems caused by unauthorised
advertising and the issues of both fly posting and litter as a result of the
distribution of free material. The paper will set out Keep Wales Tidy’s Policy
Options on the problem of fly posting and free literature distribution.
Fly Posting
What is Fly Posting
For the purpose of this paper we will define fly posting as: printed material and
any remains informally or illegally stuck to a structure’. This can include
material of any size from small stickers to large posters often advertising gigs
and events. It excludes managed and approved advertising hoardings, and
legally placed signs and notices.
Valid legally placed signs can include
advertisements on postal boards or
local authority documentation e.g.
planning notices attached to
lampposts.
Background
From Local Environmental Quality Surveys undertaken by Keep Wales Tidy we
have been able to identify 3 key categories of fly posting as they appear on our
streets.
1) Advertisements from gigs or functions
2) Community events
3) Personal such as lost pets or birthdays.
Table 1 shows the percentage of fly posting found in various local authorities
throughout Wales in 2008-09 and 2009-101. Whilst many authorities have seen
a reduction in the presence of fly posting, it is clear that there is still an issue to
some extent in every local authority area.
1 http://www.keepwalestidy.org/our-projects/local-environmental-quality
Table 1
Local Authority 2008-09 2009-10
Anglesey 0 1.2
Blaenau Gwent 3.7 1.2
Bridgend 3.3 0.8
Caerphilly 0 0.5
Cardiff 11 3.3
Carmarthenshire 2.4 2.4
Ceredigion 14 5.9
Conwy 1.9 1.3
Denbighshire 3.2 0.8
Flintshire 1.2 2.8
Gwynedd 3.7 3.2
Merthyr Tydfil 3.8 1
Monmouthshire 0 1.5
Neath Port Talbot 1.2 0.8
Newport 1.4 2
Pembrokeshire 4 1.7
Powys 3.3 1.1
Rhondda Cynon Taf 4.2 1.8
Swansea 4.4 2.2
Torfaen 3.1 0.8
Vale of Glamorgan 2.9 1.5
Wrexham 2.2 2.7
Research in Wales2 suggests that 29% of people believe fly posting has a
negative impact on the local environment (this figure increases to 43% of
people in the South Wales Valleys.) We cannot be sure from the research what
type of fly posting that this refers to, therefore this paper will look at all fly
posting issues. This perception increases with age with the 55+ category feeling
that fly posting has a more negative impact on our environment. Of the
population sampled 11% of those surveyed believe they see fly-posting on a
regular basis, again this perception increases with people in the Valleys with
18% regularly seeing fly-posting within their area.
2 Litter in Wales, understanding littering and litterers. Final Report 2010, Keep Wales Tidy
The Problem
Fly posting can lead to an area looking run down and people feeling unsafe.
and is not only a threat but has sometimes been linked to violence and
intimidation3. In a 2001 study commissioned by Camden Council concern
about fly posting was ranked higher than young people hanging around, gangs,
drug use and stealing.
In addition to having an impact on people’s perception of an area there are
also issues associated with removal.
Fly posting is generally found on bus shelters,
lamp posts, utility boxes and large expanses of
bare walls. It is often stuck on using paste or
glue which makes removal difficult and can
result in large costs to local authorities. In
some cases, even after removal, staining will
remain. People may also feel offended by
political or religious fly posting.
Welsh local authorities can spend thousands
of pounds every year on the removal of fly
posting, however due to the varied cleansing
regimes of local authorities and the joint
removal of graffiti and fly posting an exact figure is difficult to calculate. It is
not only local authorities that will incur the cost of fly posting removal but
owners of private property and utility cabinets which are commonly blighted
by the issue.
Current Legislation
There are a number of pieces of legislation currently in place in order to assist
local authorities in dealing with the problem of fly posting.
Fixed Penalty Notice – These notices can be issued for the offence of
littering, dog fouling, graffiti, fly posting and noise offences. The
3 www.keepbritaintidy.org/flyposting/background/policy.
individual who physically affixes the poster (rather than the advertised
business) may be issued with a fixed penalty notice of £75.4
Defacement Removal Notice – requires the owners of the property that
has been defaced to remove the fly posting. The notice is a minimum of
28 days after which time the local authority may remove the fly posting
and recover the costs from the owner of the property.
Unlawful display of advertisements (Town and Country Planning Act
1990 section 225) - local planning authorities can take action against
those responsible for fly posting and remove illegal posters and placards
as well as recover the costs incurred in doing so from those who have
displayed them. 5
Removal of Placards and Posters (Town and Country Planning Act section
225) the local planning authority. This enables local authorities to
remove posters and placards from owned property.
Use of Legislation
Table 26 displays figures released by the Welsh Assembly Government for the
use of FPN’s in tackling environmental crime. It would suggest that a minimal
number of local authorities utilise the powers available to them for issuing
FPNs for fly-posting. In 2009-10 only 5 local authorities reported having issued
fixed penalty notices for fly posting. This suggests that additional support may
be required by authorities to make use of these powers, or further research
needs to be made into why these powers are not being utilized.
4 www.desktoplawyer.co.uk
5 The control of graffiti and other defacement, Guidance on Sections 48 to 52 of the Anti Social Behaviour Act
2003 as amended by the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005, Welsh Assembly Government
6 www.wales.gov.uk/topics/environmentcountryside/epq/cleanneighbour/fixedpenalty
Table 2
Local Authority
No of Fixed Penalties Issued
Amount Collected
Anglesey 0 £ -
Blaenau Gwent 0 £ -
Bridgend 91 £ 3,400.00
Caerphilly 0 £ -
Cardiff 0 £ -
Carmarthenshire 3 £ 150.00
Ceredigion 0 £ -
Conwy 0 £ -
Denbighshire 2 £ 150.00
Flintshire 0 £ -
Gwynedd 0 £ -
Merthyr Tydfil 0 £ -
Monmouthshire 0 £ -
Neath Port Talbot 0 £ -
Newport 0 £ -
Pembrokeshire 0 £ -
Powys 0 £ -
Rhondda Cynon Taf 19 £ 1,200.00
Swansea 1 £ 50.00
Torfaen 0 £ -
Vale of Glamorgan 0 £ -
Wrexham 0 £ -
Discussions with local authorities would suggest that it is often difficult to
target those who ultimately gain from fly posting, such as nightclub owners or
event managers. Formal advertising can be a costly process and the benefits of
fly posting can often outweigh the fines. An article in the Guardian newspaper
affirmed this, suggesting that it is often cheaper to pay the fly posting fine than
it is to advertise legally.7
Possible Exemptions
Current legislation in Wales classifies all incidents of fly posting from those
advertised by large multinational companies to small stickers placed on lamp
posts and charitable events as fly posting. Keep Wales Tidy would therefore
suggest this needs to be reviewed. We would not support a 100% enforcement
policy and would recommend a more lenient view of the legislation should be
taken in some instances. There is a need for a certain amount of temporary
signage, including village fetes, charitable events and missing pets.
However, there needs to be insurances and agreements with these advertisers
that all correspondence is removed following events and before the posters
begin to have a negative effect on the local environment. Consideration should
be given to legislation that allows organisers of such events to apply for
permission from the local authority to display such posters for a designated
amount of time (e.g. 2 weeks running up to the event). This would allow the
Local Authority to control all advertisements within the area and would
encourage those placing the signs to remove them following events, or face
fines.
There also needs to be further research into why small stickers are placed on
lampposts and what can be done to eradicate this form of fly posting.
7 www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2004/jul/29/society.advertising
Who’s responsibility is it?
It is the responsibility of relevant land owners to clear fly posting from their
surfaces which can include street furniture, statutory undertakers and
educational institutions whose property is defaced with graffiti or any other
poster or flyer.
Most Local Authorities in Wales will only remove fly posting from their own
land or street furniture and will leave it as the responsibility of the property
owner to remove from private property.
Tackling Fly Posting
Enforcement
As stated earlier there are a number of enforcement actions available to local
authorities and landowners, with clear scope for enforcement action against
any person or company involved in the act of fly posting. It may therefore be
necessary to focus on providing better training for enforcement officers on the
use of the legislation.
Keep Britain Tidy’s Policy Paper 8 highlights the use of enforcement action by
Camden Council, who took anti social behavior orders out against a
multinational company and consequently recorded a 95% reduction in fly
posting within the area.
Reducing hot spot areas.
An alternative to using the legislation is through reducing the opportunities for
incidents to take place and by reducing the rewards gained through fly posting.
Swansea Council targeted fly posters by putting ‘cancelled’ stickers over the
event poster. Beneath the word cancelled was ‘the poster not the event’, but
illegal advertising soon became of little use to the advertisers and a reduction
in its presence was seen.
Glasgow City Council and the Clean Glasgow team enhanced areas through a
project which painted derelict shops and doorways with pleasant images; this
was thought to have enhanced the look and feel of the local community and 8 www.keepbritaintidy.org/flyposting/background/policy
discouraged people from posting further notices. It has been noted that this
was a cost effective way of dealing with fly posting within the area.9
Local authorities have informed us of schemes whereby excluded youths have
worked with community artists to produce public art in the form of graffiti. It
seems there can be success in engaging youths (notoriously hard to engage),
the art work lasts without being vandalised, and that there are very few
complaints from members of the public. A scheme similar to this has been
trialed in Bargoed by Caerphilly County Borough Council who have decorated
shop shutters with images. This has been proven to reduce environmental
crime in the area.
Raising Awareness
Coventry Council reduced the amount of Fly posting in their area using an
awareness raising campaign, launching a City wide consultation on fly posting.
The council also carried out a media launch and gave presentations to
community groups to gain public opinion on the issue. The consultation aided
the council in dealing effectively with the issues specific to the area. As a result
of the policy and campaign work carried out the council witnessed a significant
decrease in the amount of fly posting. The number of fly posting hot spots has
9 Alistair Tibbett, Clean Glasgow Scottish Litter Summit 2008
been reduced by 75% and the number of entertainment venues fly posting fell
from 19 to 3.10
Monmouthshire County Council have produced an information leaflet for
businesses and residents on the fines for people caught fly posting as well as a
substantial policy document which sets out the aims of the local authority, and
makes clear how they will deal with the issues.
Formalised sites
Formal sites for legal advertising can be a
controversial approach to the act of fly
posting. When other preventative
measures have been explored this method
should be examined. It is essential to be
mindful that formalised sites may be
subject to planning consent and
consultation with local area users should
be undertaken. Formalised sites may
appear as formal advertising drums,
boards in City Centres or smaller
community notice boards for local events.
When Dundee City Council began receiving an increasing amount of complaints
regarding fly posting, Council officials met with local promoters to discuss a
number of solutions. Among the solutions was the hiring of a contractor to
care for, repair and renew the Councils legal advertising hoardings. This
provided the Authority with some control regarding the quality and content of
displayed posters. As a result more street monitoring was carried out and the
Local Authority became more proactive in ensuring the law was enforced. This
action along with others revealed a reduction of 61% in instances of illegal fly
posting within the authority.11
10
Coventry.gov.uk creating a fly posting policy – Environmental Health case study
11 Keep Scotland Beautiful Graffiti and fly posting a guide for the public.
Leaflet Distribution and its definition
This part of the paper considers the distribution of free printed matter which
includes ‘newspapers, documents, cards, leaflets, pamphlets, catalogues,
stickers and other similar literature that is distributed without charge. This
includes those handed out to members of the public and placed under
windscreens, but does not include items distributed in shops and newspapers
or posted through letterboxes.
The Problem
The distribution of free literature namely flyers, free newspapers, leaflets and
catalogues handed to people and placed under car windscreens can blight
public spaces when these
items are discarded as litter.
Areas that are heavily littered
go on to attract more litter
and in turn will lead to an
area feeling rundown and
unsafe for its users. The
problem is found generally, in
urban areas, Town centres
and car parks, and can be a
bigger issue following major
events. Whilst no exact figure is currently held for the number of flyers and
leaflets found on the streets of Wales, business litter (including ties and red
bands) was found on 21.7% of streets in 2009-2010.12
Research commissioned by Keep Wales Tidy identified 6% of people in Wales
as having dropped flyers, leaflets or newspapers at some point during the last
year.13 Around 40% of those surveyed believed that the presence of this type
of litter would have a negative effect on the look and feel of an area. With 1 in
5 of these acknowledging that they see this type of litter on a regular basis in
the areas that they live.
12
Keep Wales Tidy LEAMS surveys 2009-10
13 Litter in Wales Understanding littering and litterers Final Report October 2010, Keep Wales Tidy
Table 3 shows the percentage of business related litter found on surveys
during 2008-09 and 09-10.
Table 3
Local Authority 2008/09 2009/10
Anglesey 18.6 17.4
Blaenau Gwent 30.5 14.6
Bridgend 14.2 36.7
Caerphilly 23.6 21.2
Cardiff 40.1 25.9
Carmarthenshire 15.7 25.3
Ceredigion 8.0 14.7
Conwy 9.7 13
Denbighshire 4.8 20.6
Flintshire 8.7 20.6
Gwynedd 19.1 12.8
Merthyr Tydfil 21.2 24
Monmouthshire 16.7 22.7
Neath Port Talbot 18.0 28.2
Newport 24.3 32.4
Pembrokeshire 14.2 21.6
Powys 16.3 12 Rhondda Cynon Taf 16 16.9
Swansea 21.5 28.5
Torfaen 25 25
Vale of Glamorgan 15.2 17.6
Wrexham 13.2 25.8
Litter in Wales costs millions
of pounds a year to clean up.
It is not only a litter issue
that arises from this
distribution, but also the
environmental impact of
wasted resources and paper.
Current Legislation
Measures were brought in
by the Environmental
Protection Act 1990 in order
to help control the distribution of free material.
Unauthorised Distribution of literature on designated land – Schedule 3,
paragraph 7, Environmental Protection Act. A person will commit an
offence if they distribute any free printed matter without the consent of
a principal litter authority on any land which is designated by the
authority. Subsequently the person involved may be subject to an FPN.
Keep Wales Tidy would agree with the use of the powers provided by the Act
in order to reduce the amount of litter arising on the streets of Wales through
the free distribution of material and believe that the Act when used correctly
will help limit and monitor the amount distributed.
Local Authority Case Studies
Bridgend County Borough Council during the past 2 years has designated an
area of Bridgend where the distribution of free printed matter without the
consent of the local authority is not permitted, using the powers under the Act.
The success of these pilots has led to the additional designation of Porthcawl,
Pencoed and Maesteg. Leaflets relating to politics, charities and religion
however, can be distributed under the act. 14 It is believed that this will have a
positive impact on the amount of litter generated within the town centres.
Recommendations
This paper has highlighted a number of issues that have arisen from fly posting
and the distribution of free printed matter for advertising purposes. Whilst
Keep Wales Tidy are mindful that particularly in the current economic climate
businesses should be encouraged and provided with the opportunity to
advertise, this needs to be done in a manner which is not harmful to the
environment and other people.
Since 2007, Keep Wales Tidy have recorded a reduction in fly posting on the
streets of Wales but an increase in the presence of business related litter
(including fliers and cable ties). Although we recognise that no one action will
eradicate fly posting and leaflets on our streets we believe that improvement
could be made if the following recommendations are implemented.
14
South Wales Echo, 21st
Feb 2011, Town bans firms handing out flyers.
Keep Wales Tidy
Keep Wales Tidy should inform local authorities when large amounts of
business litter, perceived to have come from one location or
organization is witnessed. This could be included in the LEAMS report
that is currently sent out to each local authority.
Keep Wales Tidy’s LEQ department should consider working with Eco
Schools to understand why many young people stick small stickers to
lampposts and to develop methods of combating this type of litter. This
can be done through further research working with funky dragon, the
children’s and young people’s assembly for Wales.
Local Authority
Encourage the use of surfaces that make applying paste and glue
difficult in order to prevent further instances of fly posting. When
appropriate, surfaces could be decorated with murals/ paintings in order
to reduce the presence of fly posting.
Members of the public should be advised to report all instances of fly
posting or litter from the free distribution of printed matter to relevant
local authorities who in turn, should be advised of their duty to clear all
instances as stated in the Environmental Protection Act 1990
Keep Wales Tidy and Local Authorities
Keep Wales Tidy would encourage local authorities and other relevant
property owners to rapidly remove instances of fly posting which are
deemed to be detrimental to the area. This should include the remnants
of posters and flyers.
Local Authorities and Keep Wales Tidy to work with magistrates to
ensure that fines awarded are large enough to act as a deterrent to
those using fly posting as a means of advertisement. Instances of large
fines being handed out should be publicised to discourage people from
fly posting in the future.
Local authorities should be encouraged to provide the placement of
boards for legal advertisements that would be free of charge but only if
it can be demonstrated that these boards reduce the level of fly posting
within an area. An agreement with advertisers that posters be removed
following events would need to be reached which would help ensure
display boards are kept looking clean and tidy.
Keep Wales Tidy and the Welsh Government
Keep Wales Tidy and the Welsh Government to work with local
authorities to ensure that the current legislation is used effectively, for
example by providing training on what powers are available, and
researching reasons for the lack of current legislation being used. Keep
Wales Tidy are involved in enforcement action groups in south East,
South West and North Wales these groups could be used to identify
areas where legislation training needs to be provided. Keep Wales Tidy
could review legislation through these groups to establish whether more
flexible legislation needs to be introduced to aide local authorities in
eliminating fly posting.
Keep Wales Tidy would recommend advising supermarkets and out of
town retail areas and car parks of the powers available to them to
restrict the distribution of leaflets. The Welsh Government may wish to
consider bringing in further legislation to restrict the placement of
leaflets under car windscreens, or determine in current legislation who is
responsible for these leaflets when they become litter.