Warning of billboard blight

Some of Britain's biggest companies, including Tesco, McDonald's and KFC are taking out giant advertisements on illegal billboards placed next to motorways and big roads, according to a report by the Campaign to Protect Rural England.

The CPRE survey of roadside advertising suggests that up to 900 large billboards mounted mainly on wheels have appeared in fields by motorways. Most cost about £190 a week to rent.

The CPRE suggests that Britain is going down the route of the US, where roadside advertising in rural areas has been common for years. "We estimate there is now one billboard for every three miles of major fast road. They are defacing the countryside and reducing road safety," said Paul Miner of the CPRE.

"For more than 50 years planning controls have saved the English landscape from the pox of outdoor advertising. Many people say they value the countryside for being free from advertising."

The survey of more than 2,500 miles of roads found more than 80 large hoardings on the M6, 64 on the A1, 50 on the M1, 57 on the M5 and 21 on the M40. The most densely advertised stretch of road was along the M6 in Staffordshire, where more than 20 hoardings were spotted in one 10-mile stretch last month. The A1 in Bedfordshire had more than one a mile, and the the A46/A435 in Worcestershire had 39 hoardings in 40 miles.

The rural protection group says the advertisements often exploit a common misunderstanding that official permission is not needed for advertisements on wheels. "However, the same legislation says that the exemption does not apply if the trailer has been stationary for some time," Mr Miner said.

The majority of these hoardings have been set up without obtaining the necessary consent, according to the CPRE, which yesterday called for tighter laws. "As for those that have been consented to by local planning authorities - consent should never have been granted in the first place," the report says.

"These adverts are illegal, simple as that. They have no planning permission. Some are monstrous," said Alan James, director of the Outdoor Advertising Association, who dissociated his poster company members from the hoardings.

"The problem has got worse. Local authorities have the power to stop this kind of advertising but we question whether they have the money to do so. Companies who advertise with them should know it is illegal."

CPRE members working with the government's Highways Agency found that the advertisers included fast food companies, hotel chains, used car groups, travel agencies, caravan sellers and kitchen companies.

The company identified by CPRE with the worst record was said to be Kitchens for Sale, which was found advertising in more than a dozen locations. Yesterday nobody from the company, or from Tesco and KFC, returned calls. A McDonald's spokesman said: "The advertising referred to in the report is an example of a local initiative and is not part of our corporate marketing strategy."

The Wirral South MP, Ben Chapman, who led a Commons debate on the subject in June, said: "These signs are not only a blight on the countryside but are also a hazard to motorists. So far as the advertisers are concerned, if they don't distract, they don't work."

Last night the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister said local planners had the powers to prosecute advertisers and landowners who engaged in illegal advertising, and it saw no reason to tighten the law.

"It is often sufficient to get the advertisement removed by alerting the landowner to the penalties for displaying an unlawful advertisement," a spokesman said.

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