HC Deb 09 June 1981 vol 6 cc269-71
Mr. Gerry Neale (Cornwall, North)

I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to permit the posting of standard road directional signs to small business premises without the necessity to obtain planning permission or approval from the Department of Transport. I apologise at the outset for the fact that it is necessary, in my view, to bring forward a Bill on this subject. One would have hoped that legislation would not be necessary. However, a relative purge is now taking place in the West Country against the posting of signs by small businesses and I feel that some protection must be given to them in this respect.

The purpose of the Bill would be to require county councils, in conjunction with district planning authorities, to publish within three months their approved standards of size, colouring and lettering for road direction signs to businesses in rural areas and to exempt the posting of two such approved signs in respect of any one business on land adjoining but not being part of the highway, without the need to obtain consent from the local planning authority or the Department of Transport.

The Bill would also provide for consultation with the environmental and conservation groups on the design, colouring and shape of the directional signs. Finally, on this aspect, the Bill lays down that such approved signs should have a surface area not less than 1.5 sq. ft. and not more than 3 sq. ft. and that they bear an arrow or some directional indication for the purpose of their business. There is a further point, to which I shall return in due course.

It may help the House if I outline briefly the legal position which prevails at present. In respect of verges to any road, whether relating to motorways, trunk roads or rural byroads, if a small business, or indeed any person, seeks to install a directional sign the local highway authority has power to prosecute for illegal posting of the sign. It has the power to remove the sign at the cost of the person posting it, and the person concerned is responsible for any damage or injury that results from anybody having a collision with that sign.

The only people who are able to insert or install a sign on the verge of a road are the Secretary of State for Transport or any other Secretary of State. As a matter of waiver under the law there is no planning permission required, provided that those signs are for purely traffic directional purposes.

In the case of land adjoining a trunk road, the owner's consent is required to post such a sign. Planning consent is required under the Town and Country Planning (Control of Advertisements) Regulations 1969. The consent of the Department of Transport is also required for the construction of such a sign on a trunk road. On all other roads or byroads it is clearly a question of obtaining the necessary planning consent. The major part of my Bill would be devoted to signs posted off the highway on adjoining land.

Despite an admirable campaign by the Cornwall branch of the National Federation of Self Employed and Small Businesses to obtain some standardisation and some approval from the local authorities concerned, all efforts to obtain a solution have so far failed. I asked the Cornwall branch for some examples of the sort of thing that was taking place. I was given a large dossier of small businesses in the West Country which are having the greatest difficulty in obtaining consent. I have the dossier in my hand and hon. Members can see how large it is. In going through the examples I have been appalled at the repeated allegations from business people and from those representing them, and even from district councillors, that the county council highways management is arrogant, unco-operative and completely insensitive to small businesses. I have reason to think that this is typical of a number of areas in Britain.

The unemployment figures in Cornwall were among the worst in the country. The fact that it now has one of the best employment records is due to the activity of small businesses, as well as to the tourist and the allied catering and recreational facilities. But people must be enabled to find these businesses if they are to remain in existence. Small businesses in Cornwall—I have similar examples relating to Devon and the Lake District—find that signs which they have displayed for many years are challenged by the local authorities. The small businesses are asked to make an application in respect of the signs, and when they do so the application is immediately refused.

In one case a small business in Cornwall had displayed its sign for 10 years. The owner was challenged about the sign and asked to apply for consent. The application was promptly refused. He was questioned on whether there had been any complaints about the sign from the official authorities and the police, and his answer was "No". In another case, where a sign had been displayed for two and a half years, a similar challenge was made. Where businesses have been forced to take down signs, the effect on them has been profound.

The local authority in Cornwall is insisting that, unless the business concerned has an entry through its gate of well over 50,000 people, it should not be entitled to display a sign, whether or not consent is obtained for it. It is difficult to imagine how, when a business starts, it can aspire to having 50,000 people through the gate if it is unable to tell people where it is located.

The examples that I have given show that the position is far from adequate. Indeed, had I had more time, I could have given many other examples. If a sign is challenged successfully by the local authority, the inevitable result is that the small business man concerned draws attention to signs of other small businesses as an example of what he should be able to do. Unfortunately, the local authority then tends to cause other small businesses to remove their signs.

I should like to refer also to businesses that exist on or adjoining trunk roads. As I said earlier, in such instances the consent of the Department of Transport is required. Businesses close to motorway intersections should have the right to apply to the Department of Transport to pay for a direction sign or an appropriate symbol to be included on the direction sign constructed for or on behalf of the Department of Transport on the verges of highways. The potential of businesses that exist close to motorway intersections and trunk road junctions is considerable and is not exploited as much as it could be. I am aware that the Ministers in the Department have made considerable moves in this direction, which I welcome, but there is a mood within the small business community which would respond to greater opportunity and to the suggestion that it should pay for it.

In areas such as the West Country, where there are bypasses, businesses that are off the bypasses could also advertise themselves very successfully. I suspect that the question of signs and consents for them arises from the very type of law, regulation and practice on which civil servants and council officials breed and thrive. Unfortunately, the more they breed and thrive, the more small businesses wither and die, because they cannot in many instances advertise their whereabouts.

There is, I believe, a great need for a statutory provision under which signs can be approved in the way that I outlined in the beginning of my speech.

Question put and agreed to.

Bill ordered to be brought in by Mr. Gerry Neale.