Capital to cut down on clutter as advertising boards receive the axe
All on-street advertising boards will be banned from Edinburgh by autumn after councillors agreed to remove the obstacles.
Members of the city council’s transport and environment committee yesterday unanimously agreed to a city-wide ban on the street clutter as an “equalities issue”.
The committee heard from its equalities champion, Cllr Derek Howie, who spoke about his experience of walking around the city with his guide dog.
He said: “Edinburgh is a busy capital city, it’ s thriving, it’ s booming. We have many people wanting to come and live in Edinburgh. That means a lot of people in a finite amount of space. We are facing a situation where the streets are immensely crowded. We have to be inclusive. It’s not a city just for the fit and able, it’s a city for everyone.
“If we don’t improve the situation, we will be excluding people from the city centre.”
An army of enforcement officers will be recruited by the council to make sure the ban is not flouted. There could be potential to issue fixed penalties to those who do not adhere to the ban.
Officers have received complaints in the city centre, but also in Portobello and Gorgie.
The committee also heard from Justin Davis from Edinburgh Pub Crawl, who asked for help to be given to businesses.