Leader – Is clampdown on street clutter a tad confused?

Six-sheet board opposite a much smaller A-board. Photograph: Ella Jessel

Question: What is the most passé form of furniture?

Answer: Street furniture.

Hence moves to sweep railings, bollards and other junk that clutters up our pavements into the dustbin of history.

Such moves have proved a hit in other parts of London like Kensington’s Exhibition Road, which was de-cluttered as part of the trailblazing ‘shared space’ streetscape scheme, and Camden Town, where the stripping out of railings was so zealous it left cyclists flummoxed about where to lock their bikes.

Now the war on street furniture has a new enemy: the A-board.

Council’s D- for A-boards 

A-boards are handy for small local businesses that hardly have the cash to advertise on billboards, but can they can prove tricky to negotiate for blind and partially sighted people.

Hackney Council has branded them an obstacle to pedestrians and has set about threatening shop and cafe owners with fines unless they clear them away (see Hackney Citizen Issue 44).

So, is the council also going around ripping out the so-called six sheet advertising boards that stand smack bang in the middle of many of our pavements and are far larger than A-boards? No. And in fact it is itself advertising on them.

Bind over contract

Hackney Council is currently tied into a 25-year contract with French advertising giant JCDecaux, which owns these concrete, illuminated obstructions.

JCDecaux apparently pays the Town Hall a fee and gives it a reduced rate for advertising.

But the details of the contract are unknown as, despite the Hackney Citizen asking the council for this information for several weeks, we have not been furnished with a copy.

The press office says the contract may be “commercially confidential”. It is also a mystery as to when the contract will be up for renewal.

The inconsistencies in the council’s approach to tackling street furniture went unmentioned at last month’s full council meeting, which heard a deputation from the organisation Foresight, which caters for the needs of blind and partially sighted Hackney residents and which had sent representatives to the Town Hall to humbly ask councillors to commit to permanently funding its activities.

Culture chief Councillor Jonathan McShane responded by pointing to the anti-A-board campaign as an example of how the council is helping blind people (the Royal National Institute of Blind People has called for an outright ban on A-boards).

Oh burger

Discussion of the six-sheet boards was nowhere to be seen, and the meeting later turned its attention to the subject of whether or not politicians should ban fast food outlets from opening up close to schools – somewhat ironic as the street-cluttering JCDecaux boards the council advertises on also carry adverts for… Burger King!

King in Kingsland: six-sheet boards rule whilst local businesses’ A-boards are banned. Photograph: Hackney Citizen