Hoardings.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19142, 27 October 1927, Page 8

Hoardings.

It is explained in a statement made to us yesterday by the Mayor, and printed in this issue, that the withdrawal of his hoardings motions on Tuesday night was a compromise with the majority on the Council favourable to hoardings in business areas. If he bad persisted in his attempt to have hoardings outlawed altogether, those opposed to hira might, he explains, " have considered it their duty to grant "all applications so long as they were

'"for hoardings to be erected in the "business area.'' In plain •words, there is a majority on the Council opposed to total abolition, and able, and prepared, to thwart it, and the Mayor decided that in the meantime half a loaf is better than no bread. But in the first place even the half loaf is not guaranteed, since the undertaking of the opposition is merely to treat applications [for hoardings in business areas] "on their merits"; and in the second place it is a pity that the Mayor, who has fought so stoutly to get hoardings absolutely prohibited, and who will still oppose them one by one, did not defy the opposition and trust to the increasing support o£ public opinion. For there can be 110 doubt that the feeling against hoardings is hardening and spreading. The Mayor no doubt expects to have the support of public opinion, and to achieve something by personal persuasion, as each application comes along: getting each application considered on its merits may mean, and in some cases, we are sure, will mean, getting it rejected, even though it is for a hoarding to be erected in a non-residential area, or in an area which some Councillors seem to suppose is outside the range of their discretionary powers. The Mayor has made it clear that in modifying his demands he has not changed his attitude, and it is certainly the case that the seven new applications already sent in will give him an unusual opportunity to compel other members of the Council to show how far their tolerance of hoardings goes, and precisely how far they think the Council's liberty goes. But we hope the Mayor is not going to compromise indefinitely, and that the motions which he abstained from moving on Tuesday night, or something like them, will be brought forward again, and withdrawn for nobody.