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Road Safety Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 58A:"After Clause 42, insert the following new clause—" ““REGULATIONS CONTROLLING DISPLAY OF ADVERTISEMENTS (1)   Section 220 of the Town & Country Planning Act 1990 (c. 8) (regulations controlling display of advertisements) is amended as follows. (2)   After subsection (3), insert— ““(3A)   A local planning authority must exercise its powers so as to ensure compliance with the provisions of these regulations in its area with respect to advertising that can be seen by drivers on a special road (motorway) or a trunk road.”””” The noble Lord said: My Lords, I shall not detain the House long on this amendment. It was debated at an earlier stage and the Minister replied saying that he was not in favour of requiring local authorities to do things. We said that something needed to be done about this. Advertisements are appearing alongside our motorways on trailers and van bodies and they are appearing at prominent places on trunk roads. Some local authorities with enforcement powers do something about it and others do not. Companies have been set up to sell the advertising space, even though it is illegal. The amendment would simply compel a local planning authority—““must”” is inserted instead of ““may””—to do something about advertisements that appear where they are illegal and where they distract drivers from the duty of looking at the traffic.  That is the primary reason why advertisements were banned at those sites in the first place. I beg to move.