Fly-posting

1.0 Introduction

1.0.1 Coventry City Council is constantly seeking to reduce crime, the fear of crime and improve the environment in which our citizens live. Fly posting undermines this goal. It degrades the local "street scene" and helps give the impression of urban decay. Furthermore, it is an illegal activity. The Council therefore aims to reduce fly posting throughout the City and to control fly posting through education, and enforcement. The purpose of this document is to outline the City Council's policy with regards to tackling fly posting.

1.1 What is fly posting?

1.1.1 Fly posting is defined as ‘the display of advertising material on buildings and street furniture without the consent of the owner, contrary to the provisions of the Regulations.’ Fly posting is divided into three categories (i) Adverts primarily for local events, often photocopies put up in large numbers on a regular basis. These may advertise bands playing in pubs, car boot sales and fairgrounds. They may be attached to lampposts, railings, and street furniture or pasted on buildings. (ii) Posters advertising products of large organisations and put up by professional poster companies. (iii) Posters displayed by pressure groups or political bodies. These are generally ad hoc and sporadic with no clear pattern to their location.

1.2 Why do Companies fly post ?

1.2.1 Fly posting is often seen as a very cheap and effective way of advertising events and services. The image of fly posting is often seen as a risqué form of advertising and often helps promotes the image of the event itself as being ‘daring’. Fly posts are often placed in urban areas on the main arterial transport routes, or areas near to the City Centre.

1.2.2 Owing to the high student population Coventry is often the victim of this activity as clubs and other entertainment establishments seek to promote themselves within Coventry and throughout the West Midlands.

1.3 The Problems of fly posting

1.3.1 Fly posting is not only illegal, it is also unfair on those companies who choose to advertise legitimately. Fly posting also puts an additional cost on the Local Authority and other landowners, who are required to remove fly posters from their street furniture, walls etc.

1.3.2 Fly posting has a severe effect on the "Local Environmental Quality" of the City. This can act as an anti-social magnet, which encourages a social downward spiral, and can lead to an increase in local resident's fear of crime.

1.4 Legislation

1.4.1 Under section 224 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 it is an offence for any person to display an advertisement in contravention of the regulations. The relevant legislation is contained in the Town and Country Planning (Control of Advertisements) Regulations 1992. Any person contravening the legislation is liable on summary conviction to a fine, currently not exceeding £2500. This was recently increased under the provision of the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003. In the case of a continuing offence there is £250 for each day on which the offence continues after conviction.

1.4.2 Under section 132 of the Highway Act 1980 it is an offence for any person to paint or in anyway inscribe or affix any picture, letter, or sign on the surface of a Highway, any tree, or structure without consent of the Highway Authority. If guilty of an offence the person can be liable to a fine of up to £1000, in the case of a second offence up to £2500.

1.4.3 If successfully implemented, the proposed Clean Neighbourhood and Environment Bill will also introduce powers for local authorities to use fly posting removal notices, and will change the defences available to companies benefiting from fly posting.

2.0 Methods of Prevention

2.0.1 The Council aims to prevent fly posting through a number of methods. These are classified as internal (within the council) and external interventions.

2.1 Internal Prevention

2.1.1 The Council recognises that as a landowner it has the ability and duty to take steps to prevent the illegal adverting of events held at Council venues and on council owned land. In order to prevent advertising the Council will:-

2.1.2 Ensure fly posters are not used to promote council event, or events associated with Council. Particular attention will be given to the large public events e.g Godiva Festival.

2.1.3 Action will also be taken to ensure that other persons hiring council venues do not fly post. This will be facilitated through the use of education and the use of 'no fly posting' clauses in hiring contracts. Clauses could be used to require deposit monies, which become forfeit if fly posting to advertise the event result.

2.1.4 Any entertainment that takes place within the City Centre should not be promoted through the use of fly posting.

2.1.5 Measures will be taken to make it difficult to erect posters on council owned street furniture, primarily through the use of anti-vandal paint. Where posters occur on street furniture the posters will be removed immediately.

2.1.6 Entertainment venues who habitually flout fly posting legislation will also be referred to the Council's licensing section, as persons "not suitable" to hold a premises license.

3.0 External Prevention

3.0.1 Additionally, the vast amount of fly posting found within the City, is "posted" on behalf of the entertainment and leisure industry. In order to reduce fly posting it is important that the council specifically targets those businesses within the City, with the aim of reducing demand at source for this illegal activity. As part of the proposals under this policy, we aim to liaise with the licence trade to produce a 'fly posting' code of practice. This document would give guidance on fly posting law, examples of good practice and what is expected of them.

3.0.2 Larger businesses, within the entertainment and leisure industry, fly post on a regional basis, which also causes problems for our local authority neighbours. We will work with our colleagues to provide a regional solution to this problem (see section 5.8).

3.0.3 The Student population are often seen as the target audience for fly posting and many are recruited to actually fly post. The Council will work with Student Unions of Coventry, and Warwick University firstly to provide education to the students on the consequences of fly posting and secondly, to establish whether the student union could provide advertising facilities to the entertainment industry; a potential source of income for these organisations.

3.0.4 The hoardings surrounding property developments are often a "hotspot" for fly posters. Hoarding are generally erected when construction works are undertaken or when empty premises are secured. In order to target these problems we will liaise with the City Council's Empty Properties Officer to establish a suitable method of educating property owners and landlords on their duties under fly posting legislation and tactics to prevent fly posting on their premises. We will also work with the City Development Directorate to establish a suitable method of educating property developers on their duties under fly posting legislation and tactics to prevent fly posting on their premises.

3.0.5 A significant proportion of the street furniture, within the City, is owned by the utility companies; there are also other temporary structures such as recycling facilities. All of these are targets of fly posting and it is therefore our intention to liaise with these groups to establish a method of reducing the level of fly posting on street furniture.

4.0 Controlled advertising

4.0.1 The City Council will not allow any fly posting on street furniture. This includes political advertising, travelling circuses and housing development signs. However, with agreement of the landowner, circuses will be allowed to advertise on the site of the circus for a limited period. If fly posting occurs on private land enforcement action will be taken if the poster is not classed as to have deem consent under the provisions of the Town and Country Planning (Control of Advertisements) Regulations 1992.

4.0.2 The City Council recognise the difficulties a zero tolerance will present to charity groups. In certain circumstances the City Council will allow charities to advertising through the use of placarding if they can demonstrate that the event cannot be effectively promoted by other advertising means. Any charities wishing to advertise in this manner must apply for permission off the Planning Authority and the Highways and must comply with the required detail in the Town and Country Planning (Control of Advertisements) Regulations 1992. This can be done by calling 024 76831806.

4.0.3 In order to assist these groups with advertising the City Council will be launching a leaflet to assist members of the public and charities in advertising events/services

5.0 Enforcement Policy

The key areas for enforcing fly posting are:- · Effective reporting · Effective recording systems · An appropriate enforcement policy

5.2 Reporting

5.2.1 In order to order obtain information on fly posting we feel that it is important to further develop a number of communication channels. We currently have a system that enables officers within the City Services Directorate to report fly posting; we intend to expand this to all areas of the City Council. We also propose to extend this reporting system to our partners i.e. CV One, the Police, Neighbour Wardens, Whitefriars Housing and other registered social landlords.

5.2.2 Members of the public can report incidents of fly posting through the Council free phone number, in writing, by email, or personally visiting our City Centre Advice Centre, or logging the details on the Council website.

5.3 Recording

5.3.1 In order to create an effective enforcement programme it is essential that we have a good recording/logging system. At present all fly posting complaints are logged on Public Protection’s complaint management software. Additionally we also keep a database of companies, which have been issued with warning letters or notices.

5.3.2 We have identified hot spots for fly posting. We therefore intend to log these incidents on a Geographical Mapping System (GIS). It is our intention to carry out physical surveillance of these areas at key “fly posting times” and when resources permit automate this process through camera surveillance.

5.4 Enforcement

5.4.1 Under fly posting legislation the Local Authority has powers to take action against: · Any person erecting fly posting · Any company benefiting from the advertising · The owner of, or occupier of the building/property where the fly posters are erected.

5.5 Enforcement against beneficiaries of the poster

5.5.1 The Environmental Health Service (located in the City Services Public Protection Division) are responsible for taking enforcement action against companies responsible for fly posting. We operate a “staged” approach to enforcement in accordance with the enforcement policy, the first stage of which was an education campaign to inform all interested parties of the illegality of fly posting.

5.5.2 When we encounter fly posting we will initially issue a warning letter to the company benefiting from the poster. This will also include a code of practice which explains the laws of fly posting, gives advice on proper advertising, and outlines methods on how businesses can protect themselves from being the victim of fly posting.

5.5.3 If further posters are then erected evidence is taken. In the case of posters that occur on private land, companies are issued with a notice requiring them to remove the poster within 48 hours. A sticker is placed on the face of the poster and a photograph is taken. The fly poster is then checked on the expiry of the notice period; if the poster has not been removed then evidence is taken for a potential prosecution.

5.5.4 In the case of posters occurring on street furniture, the poster is removed immediately and the offender is invited in for a formal interview. If there is appropriate evidence to prove an offence has been committed under the Highways Act 1980, the case is submitted to Licensing and Regulatory Committee for a potential prosecution

5.5.5 In the case of serial offenders evidence will be rather with the view to obtaining an Anti-social Behaviour Order against the company directors responsible or benefiting from the fly posting. The Local Authority will also consider the use of Civil injunctions if appropriate.

5.6 Enforcement against Individuals

5.6.1 Using information gathered from our recording systems (see 5.3.2) we will also target hot spot areas with a view to catch individuals fly posting in the City. If individuals are caught we will issue them with fixed penalty notices to give them the opportunity to discharge their liability. Prosecution will still be used for persistent offenders or for those who make it clear to officers that they will not comply with the relevant legislation.

5.6.2 In cases where an individual prolifically fly posts evidence will be gathered with view to taking a ASBO or civil injunction against the individual.

5.7 Enforcement Against Property Owners

5.7.1 A significant amount of fly posting occurs on street furniture and on property, which is not owned by the City Council. Whilst the City Council will take all reasonable measures to remove fly posting from its own property, we are reliant on other property owners to take responsibility for their own property.

5.7.2 When fly posting occurs it is our intention to notify the property owner and provide advice on fly posting issues and work together with these bodies to take enforcement action against companies benefiting from the poster.

5.7.3 Ultimately, where we receive no, or little co-operation from the land owner, we will look to take legal action to formally require the property owner to remove the posters.

5.8 National Fly Posting

5.8.1 Coventry City Council are a member of a national and regional fly posting Action group. We intend to use these groups to share enforcement information, and best practice and to work with our colleagues to take action against national fly posting companies.

5.9 Other Enforcement Options

5.9.1 In addition to our enforcement options Coventry City Council will also consider the use of cancelled stickers and issue charges to companies for removing the fly posters.

6.0 Comments on this Policy

6.0.1 This policy will be reviewed on a regular basis. Individuals and organisations that wish to comment on the policy are invited to send their comments in writing to: Street enforcement team streetenforcement@coventry.gov.uk or Coventry City Council, PO Box 7097, Coventry, CV6 9SL.