Mather on the case as Council takes leave of its senses on business signage
published this on 6:07 pm, Thursday, 5th November, 2009Business| Community News| Local Government | Comments (rss) | Respond | Ping |
Today’s Oban Times great lead story homed in on a bout of madness indulged in by Argyll’s progressively capable and more effective council.
The paper’s exclusive story by Louise Lee reported that small businesses between Tyndrum and Appin in North Argyll have suddenly found themselves issued with notices requiring them to remove their roadside signage within 28 days.
They have been instructed to replace them with brown tourist information signs, carrying nothing more than the name of the business. Well – hooray – that’ll do the business.
Firstly, this is against the expectations of tourism information signs, assumed to relate to heritage and visitor attraction facilities. Secondly, it lacks commons sense. What on earth would the simple name of a business on a small sign mean to passing traffic on main roads?
And what about the imposition of unnecessary expense in new signage on businesses struggling to survive the recession?
Most of these rurally-based businesses – from garden centres to specialist food suppliers to craft studios – absolutely depend on the impact of attractive, descriptive signage to attract the passing motorists that are their commercial lifeline.
Some businesses quoted in the story – like Inverawe Smokehouse – are so far from the road down single track roads that no one would venture anywhere near them without the specific – and attractive - signage that guarantees a worthwhile journey.
The Council’s defence, according to the piece, is that is is ‘concerned about the volume of signs and regards it as having an unacceptable impact on on the amenity of the open countryside and settlement contro zones’.
This is the same council that sent in mangling machines to make the most brutal visual mess imaginable of the roadsiide verges of the lovely Kilberry peninsula and of the main tourist road to the Islay ferry terminal at Kennacraig on West Loch Tarbert.
This is the same council that sent men out on machines with several hundred red and white reflective roadside verge poles – apparently to plant them at will and free to dispose of a load of them on one corner when the end of the working day approached.
No local authority is qualified to act as ‘taste police’ when the national body charged with built heritage conservation – Historic Scotland - is busily destroying at source the credibility of such exercises.
Scotland’s rural areas demand locally-based businesses. Without such businesses there is no blood in the arterial system of such communities. They have to be given support in buiding and retaining their markets.
This daft and indeed imperious outburst on the part of the Council undermines the respect it has worked hard to build up.
Jim Mather, Argyll’s MSP, already contacted by several businesses affected by this action, has swiftly expressed the hope that the Council’s planning officials can come to what he calls: ‘a pragmatic new understanding regarding roadside advertising’.
As well as being concerned about this threat to such ‘business-critical signage’, Mr Mather – also Enterprise Minister - is particularly anxious at the fact that some of these businesses ‘are under threat of summary action by the council’. He says: ‘I am disappointed that the enforcement action on signage against businesses is taking place without a more constructive debate as to how we can boost local business; particularly when so many are already under pressure to survive in the present difficult economic climate.
‘Therefore, I will be taking this matter up with senior council officials to see why this action is being undertaken at this time and explore what we all might do to progress matters and get results that everyone needs.
‘We have been fortunate this year to have enjoyed a successful tourist season when all the early indicators were that we might suffer.
‘Under the new Planning Act the local authority has greater enforcement powers but they also have responsibilities and I trust that they will help more and more local businesses, provide services for locals and for visitors and contribute to the well being of the whole community.
‘Where signage is intrusive or dangerous to road users there clearly needs to be action taken but information about services must be available to visitors, particularly where facilities are off the main road and a pragmatic approach is called for.
‘The new charter that the Council are supposed to operate under describes ‘a flexible and pro-active approach towards enforcement, where possible dealing with breaches by means of retrospective planning applications’; that ‘enforcement is a discretionary power; and that the Council is not bound to act where there is a wider public interest.’
‘These guidelines are already in place and I feel confident that, properly applied, they can ensure that we can achieve outcomes that encourage small businesses and helps create a quality environment that benefits locals, visitors, businesses and planners’.
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