Traders fear effects of board clampdown (From Gazette & Herald)

Traders fear effects of board clampdown

RYEDALE businesses claim that they will lose a valuable advertising medium when council chiefs enforce the law regarding "hazardous" pavement signs.

North Yorkshire County Council want traders to remove A-boards because they can constitute an obstruction as defined under the Highways Act 1980.

It claims the signs can be problematic for blind, partially-sighted, infirm or disabled people, and can distract motorists, impede visibility and cause a hazard.

At the end of the month, the council will put notices on the signs warning that unless the owners move them, the authority will. Businesses will have to pay £25 to get their sign back.

Ian Mansell, owner of Image Fitness, Market Street, Malton, said: "The gym is at the end of a snicket and our A-board is at the end to let people know we're here.

"It's a very effective advertising tool and it will affect us massively if we have to move it."

Sarah Crossley, owner of Simply Delicious, Market Street, Malton, sandwich shop and outside caterers, said: "Everywhere you look there are A-boards.

"The whole point of having an A-board is to distract people, they are there for people to see.

"I can understand that they are a nuisance, but there are a lot of things, like litter bins, telephone boxes, that people could bump into."

Mrs Crossley said her A-board provided invaluable advertising and that since she put her board up last summer her business had increased by at least 20 per cent.

David Snaith, manager of Old Talbot Gallery, Market Street, Malton, said: "There are fewer and fewer people shopping in Malton.

"It was Ryedale planning authority that got the out-of-town shopping centre going at Monks Cross, that was their decision.

"Then they were astonished when it reached the size that it did because it means there were fewer bodies in the streets of Malton.

"The fewer the bodies in the streets of Malton, the more you have to attract their attention and A-boards are one way of doing that."

Councillor Peter Sowray, the county council's executive member for environmental services, said advertising signs in the highway were a hazard to the public and the county council had a duty to remove them.

Updated: 13:11 Wednesday, January 21, 2004