§ Mr. Michael Forsythasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will estimate how long an application for planning permission to display an advertisement on a captive balloon would take, on average, to be decided in a typical borough within Greater London and a typical district within each of the metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties.
§ Mr. MacfarlaneAs almost all captive balloon advertisements are at present unlawful—by virtue of provisions in the Civil Aviation (Aerial Advertising) 321W Regulations 1971—my right hon. Friend has insufficient information to enable him to make the estimates requested. However, based on experience of other types of advertisement application, average times might be of the order of four weeks, seven weeks and six weeks, respectively. When captive balloon advertisements are brought within control by local planning authorities, my right hon. Friend intends to ask them to give top priority to deciding this type of application.