Road Safety Bill [HL]

Yes, there is a problem, and yes, we are working on it, in the words of my noble friend Lord Rooker. We will, however, resist the amendment because we wish local authorities’ enforcement powers to remain discretionary. A duty to enforce in all cases, which the amendment would bring about, irrespective of the nature and circumstances of the breach, would be an additional and unwarranted burden on local authorities. The Government do not consider that the matter should be subject to specific regulations, but that does not mean to say that we are not concerned about the proliferation of advertisements alongside motorways and we are working on initiatives to ensure that where such breaches occur, adverts are quickly removed; for instance, we have written to all local planning authorities reminding them strongly of their powers to act in such cases and urging them to do so. We intend to contact those companies and advertisers which are displaying advertisements on those sites, setting out the regulations and asking them to remove unlawful adverts, and we are looking at other measures that we may introduce to help local authorities deal with the problem and eradicate unlawful motorway advertising. I hope that that is enough to satisfy the noble Earl.