East Lothian Courier | News | Charities in poster clean-up

Thursday, 24th July, 2008

Published: Thursday, 1st May, 2008 08:05

Charities in poster clean-up

RED-FACED council bosses have apologised to local charitable organisations accidentally caught up in a crackdown on fly-posting.

Officials from the RNLI and North Berwick Drama Circle were seething when boards advertising recent fund-raising events were prematurely removed by “over-zealous” East Lothian Council workers enforcing the authority’s guidelines on unauthorised street advertising.

The guidelines prohibit any unauthorised advertising by commercial organisations on streets, verges, roundabouts, lampposts and trees.

Charitable groups, however, are not restricted in the same way.

Charities exempt

The cleansing employees called out to deal with a proliferation of signboards on Dirleton Avenue on April 21 did not realise that the charities’ boards, which had been tied to trees on the western approaches to the town, were exempt.

Drama Circle members said the removal of four laminated boards advertising their spring production ‘Deckchairs4’ at St Andrew Blackadder Church Hall from April 22-25 could have impacted on attendances. A further board also vanished from outside Tesco’s Tantallon Road supermarket.

While proceeds from ticket sales were due to go to group funds, money raised from sales of programmes and refreshments was earmarked for local mental health charity Stepping Out.

An average of around 60 people a night turned up to watch the comedy by Jean McConnell in the church hall, which can seat more than 80 people.

Production director Nita Marr, of Stevenson Court, Longniddry, fumed: “We do not have an endless sum of money to pay for publicity, so like other amateur groups we have been temporarily tying boards to trees.

“We have been doing this for years – it is not as if we are hammering nails into the trees and damaging them.

“We got decent attendances at each of our shows, but I don’t know how many people didn’t manage to come along because they didn’t see our advertising boards.”

Was surprised

The money raised has still to be confirmed, but it’s thought that the final total will run to several hundred pounds.

North Berwick lifeboat officials and crew members managed to raise around £500 for RNLI funds at Saturday’s coffee morning in the Hope Rooms, despite the loss of their posters.

Spokesman Malcolm Baker said: “It came as a surprise to us that the posters had been taken down, as the RNLI is a registered charity.”

A council spokeswoman said: “Our apologies go to any charitable organisation that has fallen foul of over-zealous street cleansing.

“We are trying to maintain pleasant streetscapes in our towns, but not to the detriment of local charities.

“Unfortunately, we are seeing a rise in unofficial street posters from commercial organisations.

“Some roundabouts are littered with this type of advertising and it is this that we want to remove, not posters advertising local charitable events.

“Both the RNLI and North Berwick Drama Circle are very responsible in removing their posters quickly after their events have passed, so we have no issue in allowing them or any other charitable organisation to continue to display their posters.”

The council does not issue fixed penalties for unauthorised fly-posting, but has powers to remove advertising material deemed to be breaking its guidelines.

Comments