'Let's scrap big billboards and support local business,' says Bristol councillor
CALLS have been made to scrap all advertising billboards in Bristol as a way of supporting local businesses.
Green Party councillor for Ashley Gus Hoyt believes people have had enough of being bombarded with large corporate banners at every turn.
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The number of billboards – similar to this one in Bristol – that were taken down in Sao Paulo after a change in the law
Whether you walk, drive or cycle through Bristol billboards try to sell you everything from mobile phones to instant coffee.
Mr Hoyt says it gives big companies an unfair advantage over smaller, independent traders who need to be helped in the middle of a recession.
It's worked in Sao Paulo, Brazil – the seventh largest city in the world – where 15,000 adverts were taken down after a new law was passed in 2006.
Mr Hoyt, ward councillor for Ashley, said: "With the cuts and more and more purse strings tightening we will see advertising encroaching on our lives. They completely bombard you with one side of the argument, and it's only multi nationals who can afford it.
"It gives unfair advantage over our local independent traders who we should be supporting.
"Just one example is bookshops. There are hardly any independent bookshops that aren't second hand because people just think 'Amazon'.
"We're not as bad as the States yet but it's the 'not yet' I worry about."
One of the worst hotspots is on the M32 coming into the city, the councillor claimed.
He said: "Easton residents are sick and tired of them.
"The other main one in Ashley is the Mina Road roundabout.
"There are three billboards and one further along the road before the Better Food Company.
"They're constantly graffitied and it's very much a residential area. Those should be torn down immediately."
This isn't the first time there has been a backlash against advertising banners in Bristol.
Last year conservationists forced the city council to rethink plans to put up hundreds of advertising banners on lampposts across Bristol.
The Bristol Civic Society, Neighbourhood Planning Network and other community groups such as the Christmas Steps Arts Quarter joined forces to oppose the introduction of the "money making gimmick".
Mr Hoyt believes the only adverts that should stay are those that help people rather than sell them something, like anti-smoking advice.
The councillor is backing the Bristol Pound, a currency also aimed at encouraging people to shop locally rather than in big chain stores, for the same reason.
He said: "The Bristol Pound is brilliant. The more you spend in the local economy the more it stays in the local economy.
"As Ciaran Munday [director of the Bristol Pound scheme] said, corporations hoover it up."
The argument against such a ban is it would damage the economy and potentially lead to job losses.
Mr Hoyt points to Sao Paulo where six years ago the mayor passed the Clean City Law to cut down on "visual pollution".
Thousands of signs were taken down despite protests from businesses.
But according to surveys 70 per cent of residents felt it made the city a better place to live.
Removing billboards also revealed more of the city's architecture which had previously been covered up, supporters argued.
The councillor said: "In Sao Paulo it actually boosted the local economy. "There would be the short term putting people out of work, particularly in advertising, but it wouldn't necessarily get rid of advertising all together.
"In Sao Paulo it resulted in guerrilla advertising as people found ways to get round it."
32 Comments
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by SpinyHedgehog
Sunday, February 12 2012, 11:37AM
“Purely out of idle curiousity, I wonder what is Gus Hoyt's alias on this group?”
by arealbristol
Sunday, February 12 2012, 9:43AM
“All this from Gus Hoyt who rents properties to make his living.
If you are interested in the community Gus perhaps you should sell the properties you rent to people who want to put permanent roots down into the community.
Ragreader makes a very good point. If the residents of Cotham see a planning application and are organised enough to object and get it stopped why aren't the people in Ashley Ward? Do they even care?”
by John_Name
Sunday, February 12 2012, 12:36AM
“@ragreader
By all means, let's have more billboards in Clifton”
by ragreader
Saturday, February 11 2012, 5:16PM
“how many Billboards in Cotham/Clifton? Whenever there's an application put forward for them in these areas its stamped out, voted out by the planning board who predominantly live there faster than ten words a second spoken, with gusts to fifty. Be it in poorer areas with less community clout, they go through at the same speed x 5. Ashley road for example is about to have (if the proposal goes through [note to self-I must check on that one]). advertising flags the whole length of the road hanging from every lamppost/light in the form of flags. As if its not noisy enough there at the best of times the residents would have to put up with blocked views and the constant flapping and visual noise they will create.”
by bristolreded
Saturday, February 11 2012, 4:22PM
“Keep the billboards the council needs money for good public services, anyone who want's to get rid of billboards should pay more tax to the council.”
by rocketbob
Friday, February 10 2012, 10:30PM
“they make a lot more money for the council than the millionaire Banksy did when he started.”
by brandlogo
Friday, February 10 2012, 9:01PM
“@dungbob
'Get rid of the ugly things and their attempts to make you feel inadequate by telling you what you should have'
That's not a very nice way to talk about Gus Hoyt, Chris Chalkley, and Clare Milnes!”
by brandlogo
Friday, February 10 2012, 8:59PM
“@REKnaw
'There is no doubt that these enormous bill boards are a blight on local communities.'
This is just straightforwardly false. There IS a strong doubt that the billboards blight communities.”
by brandlogo
Friday, February 10 2012, 8:55PM
“'Exactly the opposite. It's the advertisers who are treating people as cannon fodder. At a rate of around 3,000 uninvited shots a day. We get so numbed to it we don't consciously notice the noise, or when we get hit. And when someone dares to question it, they get told they're trying to control our lives!'
It's not the questioning to which I object. It's the proposal to remove the billboards. That IS trying to control our lives. If find the whole idea really patronising, as well as being an attack on free speech. I make up my own mind about billboard messages, thank you very much!”
by ragreader
Friday, February 10 2012, 8:32PM
“A tip of the hat in your direction Guy We really did make the right choice with you. Thank you for all you do and your integrity.
@purpleglasses maybe my glasses are rose tinted but by my and many other peoples last reckoning stokes croft has bought more tourism and generated more money for the local business and the city than most other attractions of recent as a result of the "eyesore" you mention. Have you been to any bookshops lately and glanced at the art section or sat in one of the many cafés and watched the camera snapping visitors clutching Bristol A to Z's with enthused kids in tow? Ill stop there as my glasses seem to be steaming up ; )"”