A pair of large illuminated ad hoardings by Putney Bridge in London, operated by adverting giant JC Decaux, need “express consent” from a planning authority even though they are within a building, a High Court judge ruled today.
Planning judge Mr Justice Ouseley today ruled against Putney Bridge Approach Limited, the owner of Riverbank House.
Putney Bridge Approach had been asking for permission to bring a legal challenge to a discontinuation notice issued by the local council, upheld by a planning inspector in a decision letter sent in August.
The two advertising hoardings in question measure around 8m x 4m and are at a glazed end to the building. They are “digitally illuminated and feature automatic sequential change of message”, according to the letter.
The ads were displayed “pursuant to deemed consent” under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, according to skeleton argument in the case. This was because they were inside a building, not outside it.
A discontinuation notice can be issued by local planning authorities “to remedy a substantial inured to the amenities of the locality or a danger to members of the public,” Douglas Edwards QC, representing the owners of the building, said in his skeleton argument.
He said that the planning inspector’s decision to back the notice was flawed.
He said that the notice “has the effect of preventing any illuminated advertising of any size, configuration or form anywhere on Riverbank House”. The inspector should have considered whether such a ban was “necessary”, and could instead have imposed conditions to control “the most harmful effect” of the hoardings.
However, Tim Buley, representing the planning authorities, said that the council’s position was clear.
“The council’s case was, squarely and throughout, that the use of the building per se was harmful to residential amenity, not simply that these particular advertisements were harmful,” he said.
The judge agreed, and backed the council and the inspector.
“The inspector was entitled to come to the decision she did,” he said in judgment today. “If the parties want to put up illuminated advertisements, they should do so with express consent, not deemed consent,” he added.
Putney Bridge Approach Limited v The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government; and the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham
Planning Court (Ouseley J) 6 December 2017
