Adblocking galore this month as not only have Adblock Bristol prevented more ad screens going up, but residents of Manchester will soon see three digital billboards coming down thanks to bold action from the city council.
We also bring updates from our Spring Gathering earlier in the month, where adblockers old and new came together for a day of creativity and campaigning.
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Manchester resists corporate bullying to remove 3 billboards
Good news from Manchester this month as we learn that 3 digital billboards on Aytoun Streets are set to be removed after the council issued what’s called a discontinuance notice against the screens, essentially saying that they no longer have planning permission to be there. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the billboard owners, City Outdoor Media, tried to object, going so far as to lodge an appeal in the High Court.
We’ve seen this kind of bullying behaviour from outdoor advertising companies before: the threat of expensive legal challenge is often enough to cow a cash-strapped council into submission. For this reason, discontinuance notices are very rare.
What’s even more concerning are the grounds on which City Outdoor Media made their court appeal. This wasn’t just a quibble over minor points of planning law. City Outdoor Media made their appeal on human rights grounds, arguing that removing the billboards violated their right to expression as enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights. As our friend Natalie Bennett has said before, there is no “right to advertise”, but it’s troubling to see the outdoor ad industry talking in these terms.
Of course, what’s lost in all of this are the voices of the people who live and work in or travel through Aytoun street every day. How do they feel about the billboards? Do they want them there, broadcasting ads for junk food, big cars and fast fashion all hours of the day?
As we’ve argued ad nauseum, the planning system for outdoor advertising, based in Victorian-era ideas, hands almost all the power to outdoor media companies, some to councils, and almost none to local people. We think this should be the other way round, with residents given the strongest voice to decide whether they want ads on their street.
Unfortunately, as I write the government is proposing to weaken planning policy by removing a crucial paragraph from the National Planning Policy Framework, which provides details on how planning law should be implemented in practice, including by local councils. This is the wrong direction of travel and we continue to engage with the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government to reverse this.
Sidenote: Huge thanks to everyone who took part in our recent action to write to MHCLG. Over 200 letters were sent calling on the government to not remove crucial elements of planning policy.
The news from Manchester is very welcome. But as the advertising industry more generally comes under increasing scrutiny for its role in promoting unhealthy and polluting products, we can expect instances of corporate bullying like this one to become more common as the industry doubles down in its own self-defence.
Adblock Bristol stops new ad screens
Network Rail decided their planning application for the ‘totem’ digital ad screens inside the main entranceway of the historic, Brunel-designed Temple Meads train station wasn’t worth pursuing after around 70 plucky Bristolians objected. Two of the screens would have been situated immediately inside the main entrance, creating a barrier to movement as well as distracting people’s attention at just the moment they are trying to find information about train times and platforms.
Whether Network Rail will reapply is unclear, but for now Adblock Bristol can add this to their ever-growing list of blocked ads. Nice work!
- Find out how you can block ads where you live in just three easy steps here.
Spring Gathering a big success
It was a delight to welcome adblockers from around the country to our Spring Gathering in Lambeth earlier this month. We enjoyed a day of creative art making, celebrating stories of change, and planning how to influence local and national policy this year. It was great to have Isis Wheelright lead a zine-making workshop, which led to our zines being installed in a nearby ad space, briefly reclaiming an outdoor advert for community art (check out the feature image of this blog).
Many thanks to everyone who came and made the day so invigorating and enlivening.
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