Agents' Board Ban Extended Across Fulham

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For Sale and To Let signs banished in conservation areas

Estate agents' advertising boards will be banned from October in large areas of Fulham, including Walham Green, Parsons Green and Moore Park.

On September 6, the Department for Communities and Local Government gave H&F Council the go ahead to stop For Sale and To Let signs being displayed in another these conservation areas, as well as Olympia and Avonmore, the Gunter Estate and Hammersmith Grove.

The ruling, known as Regulation 7 under the Town and Country Planning Act, allows councils to ban boards following a consultation with residents and with the consent of the Secretary of State.

The same ruling has been extended in neighbouring Kensington & Chelsea, meaning the west London ban covers 23 conservation areas.

Councillor Nicholas Botterill, H&F Council’s cabinet member for environment, said: “This is a victory for every resident who has had to put up with multiple tatty, ugly and large signs that make roads look cluttered and shabby."

A consultation last year with residents living in the new ‘ban zones’ showed that 98 per cent of respondents supported the scheme and wanted the council to rid the areas of signs.

The council applied to extend the ban in March, following approval by the council.

David Leeming, the DCLG’s inspector, visited the borough in May and saw the problem for himself. He said: " There is a significant problem in the defined areas, even though many boards are no doubt displayed lawfully. The local concentrations of boards I saw on the residential terraces in Hammersmith Grove, Avonmore Road and Harwood Road, created a particular impression of clutter and excess."

The ban will begin on October 5 and will apply initially for five years, with the council reviewing the situation at the end of this time. 

To report an illegal board, email email: boards@lbhf.gov.uk

 

 

September 24, 2010