CPRE Leicestershire

In September 2006 a conference took place at Loughborough University of Technology, a mere 2.5km away from where the photographs below were taken. The conference, hosted by the Institution of Highway Incorporated Engineers and entitled 'Achieving Excellence in Signing' had as one of its speakers Edmund King, Executive Director of the RAC Foundation.

Edmund King announced that the RAC Foundation had joined with National CPRE to form an alliance to campaign against countryside clutter. The point was made that clear signage, that is concise, relevant, reliable and timely improves safety and that a clutter of contradictory signs leads to confusion that can result in collisions.

CPRE's Chief Executive, Shaun Spiers, said, "People simply aren't prepared to put up with our countryside being blighted for no good reason. We want local authorities to think again about putting up unnecessary road signs, and keep our countryside from becoming a nightmare of garish signs and billboards."

Edmund King said, "We are ruining many of our pretty rural areas by putting in hideous traffic calming schemes and far too many signs and lines. We need clutter reviews to remove unnecessary signs and lines."

The suggestions are that CPRE carries out local 'clutter audits', being a campaign to restore countryside character through the use of fingerposts and other locally distinctive signage and that we keep a record of the number of signs consequently removed as a result of our campaigning efforts. Please get in touch with the Leicestershire CPRE Branch.

More details about the 'Clutter Challenge' can be found on our national website.

This is the scene greeting road-users as they approach the A6(T) One Ash road island from the east, just south of Loughborough. The high ground on the horizon in the first picture are the hills of the beautiful Charnwood Forest area (click on pictures to enlarge):

The following two pictures illustrate the bewildering and confusing array of signs at the island itself:

[Picture by Graham Stocks]

There are in fact a total of four similar signs on this roundabout, though at the time of writing one has been knocked flat by a vehicle. Since the conference at Loughborough University two years ago these roundabout advertisements have been springing up like mushrooms in the night. More about this particular form of highway clutter in Part Two, below...

Clutter Challenge - Part Two

The weekly Planning Applications List for Charnwood Borough Council had no less than NINETEEN separate applications submitted by Leicestershire County Council. Under the heading 'proposal' each application was for 'The display of x sponsorship signs'. Most people would refer to these distracting highway signs as blatant advertising and common sense would suggest that allowing these is a Bad Idea. Below are two pictures of road islands, one with a so-called sponsorship sign and the other where the local authority is inviting 'sponsors'.

[Pictures by Joyce Noon]

Since there are no less than fifty-five roundabouts in Leicestershire already with this form of advertising the thought occurs that maybe retrospective planning permission or an application for a Certificate of Lawfulness is more appropriate. Hopefully, recent clarification of the rules governing the display of advertisements on highways will actually prohibit this unwanted clutter and we will see the end of this particular form of blight - watch this space!

Our response to the planning applications made by Leicestershire County Council to Charnwood Borough Council.

Usually, Planning Enforcement is swift to act but not so in the case of road island advertising. It is surely obvious to all that unless a sign gives important route information or traffic-related warnings, then any other sign has no place on highway land. To claim that road island advertisements are in fact sponsoring signs is specious. The amount of rental (sorry, sponsorship money) these advertisements bring in surely isn't worth the potential these boards have for mishap, especially at this type of junction which call for maximum concentration from all road users.

It's typical for litter to worsen in areas where dropping it in the first place isn't discouraged, or cleaning it away once deposited doesn't take place frequently enough. The same sort of thing happens in neighbourhoods where a window is broken and not replaced. Very soon more windows are broken and indicate an area in decline. This phenomenon seems to be happening at some roundabouts with sponsorship advertisement boards. The following five self-explanatory images show a sandwich board obscuring the view of approaching traffic from the right at a road island junction. The last image shows a PVC advertising banner on the other side of the same island. Add to these the numerous posters, large white sheets bearing 'Happy 40th', 'Earn £500 a week part-time' and house-builders' signs we see at road junctions and the effect of this clutter is pure tat. It is time local authorities got a grip on these matters and better still begin to set a better example by putting their own house in order. Currently (October 2009) Leicestershire County Council show no sign of having moved forward towards a satisfactory resolution over the matter of road island advertising.