The picturesque coastal town of Newquay faces the prospect of 12 new digital advertising screens if a new planning application is approved. If you’re in Newquay, or anywhere in Cornwall, please consider making an objection as soon as possible as the deadline closes this week. Thanks to local resident and Adfree Cities supporter Katie for making us aware of these.
The application by Urban Innovation Company lists the locations as: Berry Road, Bank Street, Chester Road, Central Square, Cliff Road, Fore Street, Henver Road, Headland Road, Narrowcliff, Pentire Road, Treloggan Road and Wiliam Hosking Road.
Luckily, for anyone wishing to oppose the new ad screens, called ‘Pulse Smart Hubs’, the process is straightforward and you can object to all 12 at once.
How to Object
🔮 Visit the council’s planning portal and log in (you may have to create an account): https://planning.cornwall.gov.uk/online-applications/
👀 Search for planning reference: PA25/01900
- Click on ‘Comments‘
- Click on ‘Add a comment‘
- Write your objection.
Points you may want to consider (feel free to use these or write your own, making it personal to you):
Light pollution – We don’t need this extra light pollution in our town.
Beauty, amenity – Newquay has so much natural beauty, the photo submitted in the application shows these ad boards placed across the town, they are bright, intrusive and ugly, and obstruct views like of Fistral beach.
Advertising boards – I object to promoting increased consumerism. We do not need to be exposed to 24 more ad screens a day, especially digital ones, each showing up to 6 adverts a minute. Children are particularly vulnerable to advertising as they do not have developed reasoning skills.
Support local businesses – For a business to buy digital advertising space can cost upwards of £1000 a month, so won’t be affordable to our local businesses. It will be multinational brands and products, more likely to draw consumers away from our high street. The biggest spender on outdoor advertising in the UK is McDonald’s.
Distraction – Adverts are designed to distract. Drivers and other road users do not need this unnecessary additional distraction, it would be unsafe.
Obstruction – Our pavements in Newquay are not wide, we need space for wheelchairs, prams, pushchairs, surfboards and bikes. Having objects on the pavement will decrease accessibility for locals and tourists.
Environment, electricity use – Each board uses the electricity equivalent of 4 households per year to run, that’s 16,819kWh. Twelve ad screens means the equivalent of 48 houses of electricity a year being wasted on ads, which does not help us move towards net zero.
Environment, recycling – The raw materials used to make these screens are finite, precious and non-renewable. There are currently no facilities to recycle these digital advertising boards once finished with.
If you’d like support in objecting to the new screens, or have applications in your local area, please contact us at hello@adfreecities.org.uk. We’re happy to help. And, if you’d like to contact your local councillor about this issue, find their details here.
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