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.