Local Transport Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 2: 2: Clause 9, page 11, line 4, at end insert— ““( ) The plan must include details of actions that the local transport authority intend to take regarding the erection and display of mobile roadside advertisements in their area.”” The noble Earl said: My Lords, during the passage of the Road Safety Bill, noble Lords raised the issue of rural roadside adverts. These are positioned alongside motorways, trunk roads and roads on the primary network. They are aimed at motorists driving at high speed; we are not talking about urban roads with low speed limits and a large volume of adverts aimed at slow-moving or stationary motorists. The road safety risk caused by completely unnecessary distractions is obvious to anyone interested in road safety. The first noble Lord to raise this issue was, I think, the noble Lord, Lord Harrison, and I am pleased to see him in his place. Since we last debated this issue there has been a large and obvious increase in the number, the size and the sophistication of these adverts. There is also evidence of larger commercial organisations coming into the market. That is inevitable, given the clearly ineffective enforcement action by central government. In other words, it is not being effective at getting the local authorities to deal with the problem. It would be highly undesirable for farmers to get used to this income stream, because it will have to be turned off at some point—better sooner rather than later. These adverts are regulated by the Town and Country Planning (Control of Advertisements) (England) Regulations (SI 2007/783). I hope the Minister can reassure the House that not only are the regulations comprehensive and detailed—they are, but I could not understand them when I read them—but also that they provide local authorities with all the powers that they need. I hope we do not need more regulations, with all their attendant pitfalls. For instance, we would not want to arrive at the next general election to find that we had accidentally banned all political roadside adverts, which are not a problem because they are erected for short periods, they only set the mood music, they do not require the recording of any details by drivers and of course they are not for commercial purposes. Central government needs to ensure that the current legislation is used, and to informally tell the advertising industry to knock it off. If the Government do not succeed in reducing the number and the size of these adverts, it is almost inevitable that a very serious accident will occur when one driver is distracted and drives at speed into a stationary object or another vehicle. If the moving vehicle is a truck and the stationary vehicle is a school minibus, I dread to think what the coroner’s report would say and I would certainly not want to be the Minister explaining to Parliament why nothing had been done to avoid such a clear and present danger. Is the Minister satisfied that the regulations, which were laid only last year, are effective? If he is, why do we still have the problem? What is he doing about it—or does he believe that the problem is not one for central government? I beg to move.