A campaign has been launched to try to stop a third giant digital advertising screen aimed at drivers on the M32 in Bristol.
London-based property company ArdentLand has applied for planning permission for another digital ad screen next to the motorway, closer to Bristol city centre than the existing two.
The screen would be six metres wide by three metres high and located on a small area of grass outside the front of Dainton Self-Storage on New Gatton Road in St Werburghs.
Opinion: Why digital advertising billboards on M32 need taking down
The ad screen would be mounted up so that motorists heading into Bristol on the M32 would see it up on the opposite, right-hand side of the motorway as they come under the railway bridge approaching junction 3 for Easton and St Pauls.
In the application for planning permission for the sign, Ardent Land’s Stuart Wellman told council planners digital screen advertising was more environmentally friendly than traditional billboards where the paper ads are replaced regularly.
“The applicant wishes to improve the delivery of advertising to the Bristol area allowing sustainable, relevant, locally focused and timely messaging rather than the display of fixed, often national advertisements in a location that avoids more sensitive parts of the city,” he said. “Elsewhere in the country and across the region we have seen the benefit of this flexibility which can include public messages and the more ready display of non-commercial adverts during void periods,” he added. “The display would present a range of static advertisements, each lasting for 10 seconds. The change between each advertisement would be almost instantaneous with no animation or special effects.”
“The use of digital technology allows the proposed display to be operated remotely thus materially reduces vehicle movements to manage the estate with only periodic inspection and servicing being required,” he said. Digital images also completely remove the requirement to print, glue and dispose of several hundred square meters of paper in a typical year when compared to traditional (paper & paste) posters & signs.
“Therefore, as an appropriately lit unit, displaying (by its nature) simple messages, logos or images at an appropriate rate of change, the proposed sign will be readily absorbed (or ignored) as part of the driving task particularly as we consider that there is nothing unusual or complicated about the highway network here to give rise to special road safety concerns,” he added.
“As such, we consider it extremely unlikely that any driver who is exercising a reasonable degree of care for their own and others' safety would be distracted or confused by the proposed display,” he added.
There are already two large digital ad screens aimed at drivers coming into the city on the M32. They are further up the motorway on the Easton side of the carriageway, and have been very controversial since they first appeared a few years ago.
People living near those existing two have complained about the light pollution and disturbance caused by the brightly-lit screens, and drivers have also complained of being distracted by the screens as they drive into the city, particularly at dusk and into the night.
Those two ad screens were given temporary planning permission five years ago, and when it was due to either run out or be renewed last year, campaigners from Adblock Bristol and the Ad Free Cities organisation called for Bristol City Council to tell the ad companies they wanted them removed.
More than two thousand people signed a petition and made representations to the council and mayor Marvin Rees, but it wasn't enough to get the issue formally debated by councillors at City Hall last year. The Mayor of Bristol, Marvin Rees, also dismissed their calls, saying he hasn't 'had much time agonising over the billboards on the M32', after listing all the other things he said were more important.
Asked how he felt about the billboards at a press briefing the day after the petition was presented in December, Bristol mayor Marvin Rees, said: “I appreciate people have got the time to do that and we recognise there’s a challenge with advertising.
“I just went through a whole list of city challenges we face right now: £23million in the budget needed to be found, adult social care crisis, concerns over child safety, on top of a worsening housing crisis, the climate and ecological emergencies, trying to get people back onto public transport, congestion problems in the city.
“To be perfectly [frank], I really haven’t had much time agonising over the billboards on the M32," he added.
Now, the prospect of a third digital screen billboard has sparked a campaign now to stop it happening in the first place.
“Despite more than 2,300 people signing a petition to remove the two existing M32 screens in Easton, it seems advertisers haven’t got the picture,” said Veronica Wignall, from Ad Free Cities.
“As well as being bright, distracting and harming local people and wildlife, this screen would use the same electricity as more than 11 average UK homes per year,” she added.
The campaigners from Adblock Bristol have successfully stopped digital screen ads in other parts of the city - as advertisers look to switch to the bright screens rather than continue having to send someone to paste up a paper ad on billboards.
“In the last four years we’ve worked together to block more than 30 screens from coming to Bristol, and we can block this one too,” added Veronica. “In situating this development the applicant seeks to divert drivers' attention from the road and onto the advert screen, which would change every ten seconds,” the objection from Adfree Cities said.
“Drivers at this point are leaving the motorway and need to concentrate their attention on city traffic, and therefore ought not to be distracted,” it said.
The property company submitting the application told city planners it should be allowed because it was located in an area away from anyone’s homes. The part of St Werburgh’s next to the M32 is industrial, and faces Fox Park on the other side of the motorway cutting as it goes under the bridge.
“This is misleading as the screen would be visible from those in residential neighborhoods such as those in Easton,” said Adfree Cities. “Residents of houses on Fox Road in Easton would look directly onto the screens, and light from the screen would intrude into these properties 24/7, even if the screen is angled away from them.
“Those who are will know that this development would be adjacent to the two existing M32 digital advertising screens previously mentioned. It is clear that from some parts of the city – and the motorway – all three screens will be visible, and residents living opposite the motorway will be most affected,” they added.
Want our best stories with fewer ads and alerts when the biggest news stories drop? Download our app on iPhone or Android
