County Committee
Tourist Signs
The secretary received the following e-mail from John Tasker, Route Performance Manager at the Highways Agency, Leeds and passed it on to Robin Dower who responded on behalf of the society:-
We are coming under increased pressure to relax our policy on tourist signing and a local MP is trying to put a bill through Parliament to put us under an obligation to grant approval for any tourist sign.
This would include signs where the facility is located where simply following an existing destination sign would enable the driver to find the facility. We obviously oppose this as it would lead to a great number of such signs and reduce safety and increase visual intrusion.
In view of your cut the clutter campaign, which we were able to support, I wonder if you have a view on this.
As this is a very live and imminent issue and early reply would be appreciated."
Dear John,
Thank you for your e-mail 2nd July asking for the Societyıs views on the pressure to relax the County Highways policy on tourist signs.
As you know since 2005 we have maintained a Cut the Clutter campaign to reduce needless proliferation of direction signs, roadside signs and advertising hoardings in fields adjacent to major roads.
You recently published for consultation an excellent draft Policy Document relating to Design Guidance for the Maintenance and Management of Roads in Northumberland Coast AONB. We warmly welcomed your approach, particularly for your recognition that roads, their signage, verges and boundaries form an essential part of the character of the AONB, and we commended the policies and action proposed to protect that character.
We strongly urge the relevance of those policies as applicable to all rural areas of Northumberland and look for a widespread sensitivity to road character throughout the County.
It therefore appears to us that relaxing the controls over the siting and design of tourist signing would be quite incompatible with the aim of your developing policy and we fully support you in resisting this on the grounds of loss of the special character of this countryside.
You will be better able to judge aspects of safety in relation to increased signage but it would seem to add to the distraction of motorists that unrestricted signage should occur wherever a service provider fancies will most catch attention.
Much of the proliferation of clutter should be addressed either by the Highways Authority acting within its own area of responsibility or by the local Planning Authority exercising its judgement in consultation with Highways on applications relating to advertising.
Kind regards
Robin Dower
Acting Chairman,
County Committee NNS
City and County
November 2009
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