Council Plan for digital billboard thrown out
APLAN to put a large digital screen advertising board on the side of a house next to one of Bristol’s busiest junctions has been thrown out by council planners.
They said the planning application for the large digital advertising screen would distract drivers approaching the traffic lights at the junction of Church Road and Russell Town Avenue, and would lead to a greater chance of collisions and injuries.
Ad company Clear Channel were criticised by council planners for not assessing the impact on highway safety from their plan for a 6m wide by 3m high digital screen, which they wanted to put on the end of the building on Church Road for drivers to see as they headed out along that A420 main road towards St George.
Around 50 local people and campaigners from the group Adblock Bristol objected to the proposal, and their complaints were backed by the council’s highway safety officer, who told council planners the ad would be a distraction to drivers at a critical point at that junction.
The planners’ report revealed that the digital screen would, for some drivers, be directly behind the traffic lights, distracting them from what the traffic light was showing as they approached the junction.
That turning off Church Road to Russell Town Avenue, close to City Academy school, is already deemed as dangerous, with highways chiefs saying it has a “proven record of injury accidents and is one of the city’s Sites of Injury Accident Concentration, indicating the complex and busy nature of the junction”.
“The advert, by its nature, would draw attention of drivers, at a location where drivers should be paying attention to the road,” said the council planning report.
“Any further potential distraction at this location could result in additional collisions and injury.
“The applicants have failed to undertake any assessment of the
❝ The advert, by its nature, would draw attention of drivers, at a location where drivers should be paying attention to the road
surrounding highway network and existing or potential safety considerations for the panel, however it is
clear to officers that the proposal will create additional distraction over and above the existing situation, to the severe detriment of safety at this junction.
“The proposed digital screen is located behind the view of traffic signals, which incorporate pedestrian crossings on what is considered a busy section of highway due to the number of minor arms meeting Church Road,” the council planners’ report stated.
One of the last actions of local Labour councillor Ruth Pickersgill before she stood down as a councillor for the Easton ward at May’s elections was to object to the application.
She said the applicants “do not know the area well”.
“They clearly feel this is an industrial area – which it is not – and that there are no residents that are impacted,” she said.
“There is a school and shops nearby, CWU offices opposite and there are flats over retail units and a few yards up there is older people’s supported housing at Moorfields House.
“Introducing visual blight in the form of an illuminated billboard directed to gain the attention of passing motor traffic will further reduce local amenity for residents.
“This area already suffers from extensive night light pollution which this would exacerbate.”
Council planning officers determined the application without going to the planning committee, and refused permission on the basis of highway safety.
Campaigners at Adblock Bristol said it was the latest victory in their ongoing campaign to stop Bristol having any more digital screen advertisements.
Adblock successfully objected to one earlier this year at Parson Street in Bedminster, but did not manage to stop two huge digital screen ads in Easton alongside the M32 in the past couple of years.
Council report