THAME Town Council is to demand that advertising on the district’s roundabouts go through ‘the proper planning process.’
The town council’s planning committee voted to write to South Oxfordshire’s Chief Executive, David Buckle, after Thame resident, Mr Michael Tyce, asked them whether it could be right for the district council to accept fees for, what he called, “unslightly” advertising on roundabouts, whilst “flaunting lawful planning permission.”
Mr Tyson claimed that such advertising “harms amenties and is distracting to drivers.” He was also concerned that local communities were not consulted on the scheme to hand over roundabout maintenance to a company called Marketing Force, to carry out maintenance work in return for being permitted to erect signs on roundabouts and sell advertising space on them, that came into force earlier this year.
He accused SODC of “illegal behaviour.”
The mayor, Cllr Nigel Champken-Woods, said that he had no problem with the basic concept but felt that the actual work on the roundabouts could be much better.
Cllr David Laver said that he felt the scheme was poor value for money and cited what he considered to be very attractive Oxford roundabouts that were maintained by the local council and the City In Bloom organisation. He agreed that there should be proper consultation and planning permission.
Thame town councillors expressed particular dislike of the Waitrose roundabout which was described as ‘gaudy’ and ‘unsightly’.
Cllr Laver urged the town council to support the CPRE, Campaign to Protect Rural England’s campaign to urge the district council to end what it calls: “This inappropriate scheme, or at least to make it the subject of retrospective applications as it would any other developer who had plastered the District with unpermitted commercial advertising.”
NB. David Buckle is reported to have told the district council’s Scrutiny committee that he had been “mistaken in assuming the signs had deemed consent, that advertising consent should have been sought and that the decision making process had been flawed.”
NBB. CPRE, in a letter to the Town Clerk, say:
“The county council had been spending an average of
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