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CPRE has long fought to prevent large advertising displays blighting the countryside. Indeed, CPRE National Office was instrumental in bringing about the regime of Areas of Special Control of Advertising in 1948, set up to prevent the spread of poster panels along main roads in the countryside.

Such advertising hoardings have blighted landscapes in large parts of North America and continental Europe. But the English countryside has been kept largely free of large, garish advertising — thanks to the regime of advertising control.

This achievement is now in serious danger. We've found hoardings spreading rapidly besides motorways and major roads across England. They spoil the countryside and there's a real risk they can distract motorists driving at high speeds.

In 2007, new measures were put in place to target illegal advertising including hoardings alongside roadways. Councils were given stronger and more flexible powers to tackle companies whose adverts flout the law, dangerously distract drivers and blight the countryside.

Local planning authorities across the England now have access to a new national database, enabling them to track offenders with those companies prosecuted for repeat offending being "named and shamed" on the site. The database is designed to help enforcement officers to build cases for prosecution within their regions.

CPRE Oxfordshire welcomed this move believing it will particularly help with the illegal advertisements that appear across Oxfordshire. There has been a lot of effort by District Councils to remove signs and this will make their task easier. However, we still believe that local authorities should be given stronger powers to remove advertisements and charge landowners for the task.

Roadside Advertising in Oxfordshire

Advertising hoardings now plague much of the length of the M40, and other motorways in the county, and spoil the attractiveness of the countryside. CPRE Oxfordshire has opposed these advertisements, most of which have been erected without planning permission. We believe that if an advertisement is justified, it should first pass scrutiny through the planning process. Where advertising hoardings have been erected without permission, we will ask planning authorities to seek their removal.

A decision by a planning inspector in 2006 who rejected a planning application for an advertising hoarding at Tetsworth, South Oxfordshire, has proved useful in our campaign against inappropriate roadside advertising. The essence of the Tetsworth decision was that just because a motorway might be ugly, that's no reason to spoil the countryside alongside it.

Find Out More

Below are a list of links to further information regarding this campaign: