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Council Planning Guild 2

Guild for Outdoor advertisements, Hoarding, Banners, Billboards, Shop fronts & Signage

Advertisements which are normally permitted: Class 2(C) permits notices or signs which relate to:  any religious, educational, cultural, recreational, medical or similar institution; or  any hotel, inn or public house, block of flats, club, boarding-house or hostel; provided that the advertisement is displayed at the premises and does not exceed 1.2 square metres in area. If there is more than one entrance to the premises on different road frontages, two advertisements of 1.2 square metres each may be displayed (each on a separate frontage). Two examples of advertisements in this class are shown in illustrations 16 and 17.

Outdoor advertisements and signs: a guide for advertisers

Any advertisement in Class 2B and 2C may be illuminated, with deemed consent, if the illumination is intended to indicate that medical or similar services or supplies are available at the premises. But no letters, figures, symbols or similar features included in the advertisement in Class 2 may be over 0.75 of a metre in height, or 0.3 of a metre in height if the premises are in any Area of Special Control of Advertisements.

Class 3: Temporary Advertisements

Class 3 gives consent for a wide variety of notices and signs which are usually displayed to publicise a forthcoming event, or to advertise a short-term use of the advertisement site. Class 3 is divided into six separate categories – (A), (B), (C), (D), (E) and (F) – each with its own provisions for deemed consent.

Class 3(A) permits boards to be displayed by such firms as estate agents, chartered surveyors, auctioneers and valuers, advertising that land or premises are for sale or to let. The advertisement board for each sale or letting must not exceed, if the sale or letting is for agricultural, industrial or commercial use or development for such use, 2 square metres; but, if two boards are joined together to form a single advertisement, a total surface area of 2.3 square metres is permitted.

If the sale or letting is for residential use or development, the advertisement board must not exceed 0.5 of a square metre, or a total area of 0.6 of a square metre for two joined boards. No advertisement board is allowed to extend outwards from the wall of a building by more than 1 metre.

In each case only one board may be displayed on premises and this must be removed not later than 14 days after completion of the sale or granting of the tenancy. Two examples are shown in illustrations 18 and 19.

Class 3(B) permits advertisements to be displayed announcing that there is to be a sale of goods or livestock on land or premises which are not normally used for commercial purposes. These would include:

•  an auction sale of house-contents at the house
•  a sale of livestock on farm premises.

The advertisement board or notice must not exceed 1.2 square metres at the place where the advertised sale is to be held.

Class 3(C) permits firms or individuals who are carrying out building, engineering or construction work to advertise the fact at the site. One firm or individual may display their own advertisement board, provided it does not exceed 2 square metres; but if all those engaged on the contract rely on a single advertisement board, it can have a total area of 2 square metres, plus a further 0.4 of a square metre for each additional firm or person mentioned on the board.

Additionally, if the development project is known by a particular name, the size of the advertisement board may be increased to enable the name to be displayed. When this type of advertisement board is more than 10 metres away from a highway, it can have a total area of 3 square metres, plus a further 0.6 of a square metre for each additional firm or person mentioned on it. If the board is already being displayed, so that it is impracticable or inconvenient to add another name to it, any other firm, contractor or individual working at the site may display their own separate board for up to three months, provided that it is no larger than 0.5 of a square metre on each road frontage to the site of the project. Class 3(C) permits this type of advertisement board only during the time when the building, engineering or construction works are actually taking place on site. An example of Class 3(C) is shown in illustration 20.

Outdoor advertisements and signs: a guide for advertisers

Class 3(D) permits temporary notices or signs which are intended to advertise any local event being held for charitable purposes, which may be religious, educational, cultural, political, social or recreational, but not for any commercial purpose. This permission would include an advertisement for:

•  a church bazaar
•  a fete for a parent-teacher association
•  a sponsored marathon in aid of charity
•  an amateur sports event, but not any sporting event organised for commercial purposes.

The advertisement permitted by Class 3(D) must not exceed 0.6 of a square metre.

Class 3(E) permits temporary notices or signs advertising that a demonstration of agricultural methods or processes is taking place on the land where they are being displayed. The total area of all such notices must not exceed 1.2 square metres in aggregate and no individual notice is to exceed 0.4 of a square metre. They may be displayed only for a period of six months in any year.

Class 3(F) permits temporary notices or signs announcing the visit of a travelling circus or fair. These advertisements must not be displayed more than 14 days before the opening of the circus or fair and must be removed within seven days afterwards. The local planning authority must be told 14 days beforehand of the sites of the notice. The notice or sign must not exceed 0.6 of a square metre.

Advertisements permitted by Class 3 must not:

•  have any letters, figures, symbols or similar features of the design over 0.75 of a metre in height, or 0.3 of a metre in height if they are in any Area of Special Control;
•  have the highest part of the advertisement at more than 4.6 metres above ground-level, or 3.6 metres in any Area of Special Control (except for estate agents’ boards, in Class 3(A), advertising a sale or letting of premises situated in a building above these specified height limits); or
•  be illuminated in any circumstances.

And, if a Class 3 advertisement relates to a sale or event, it must not be displayed more than 28 days before the sale or event begins and must be removed within 14 days after it ends.

Class 4: illuminated advertisements

Class 4 permits the display of advertisements with either internally illuminated letters or characters on an unilluminated background or lit by ‘halo’ illumination.

An advertisement permitted by Class 4:

 must not have any intermittent light source, moving feature, animation or exposed cold cathode tubing;

Outdoor advertisements and signs: a guide for advertisers:

 must not have more than one such fascia panel and one projecting at right angles;

 in the case of a shop, may only be displayed on the wall with a shop window;

 must be at least 2.5 metres high at its lowest point;

 if a fascia panel, must not extend more than 0.25 of a metre from the wall;

 if a projecting sign, must not exceed 0.25 of a metre between the two sides.

Class 4 does not extend to any premises in a Conservation Area, Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, National Park, the Broads, or Area of Special Control of Advertisements.

Class 4(A) permits internally or ‘halo’ illuminated advertisements on premises within a retail park but only on a frontage which faces or overlooks a communal car park. A projecting sign on these premises must not exceed 1 square metre, project more than 1 metre from the wall or be more than 1.5 metres high. An example is shown in illustration 21.

Class 4(B) permits internally or ‘halo’ illuminated advertisements on other business premises (see Class 5 below) if they relate wholly to the business or name or qualifications of the person carrying on the business or the goods sold or services provided. A projecting sign must not exceed 0.75 of a square metre in area, project more than 1 metre from the wall, exceed two-thirds of the width of any pavement below it, or be more than one-sixth of the frontage measured to the top of the advertisement. An example is shown in illustration 22.

Maximum levels of luminance are detailed in the Regulations.

Class 5: advertisements on business premises

Class 5 gives consent for a wide variety of notices, signs and advertisements to draw attention to any commercial services, goods for sale, or any other services available at the premises where the advertisement is being displayed.

‘Business premises’ means any building in which a professional, commercial or industrial undertaking is being carried on, or any commercial services are being provided for the public. This term would include:

•  office buildings
•  banks and building societies
•  shops and shopping arcades
•  supermarkets and hypermarkets
•  theatres, cinemas and dance-halls
•  bingo halls and amusement arcades
•  vehicle showrooms and garages
•  privately owned factories and works

The advertisement must be displayed on the exterior of the building (see illustration 23)

Class 5 is not intended to permit all forms of outdoor advertising on any business premises; it only permits advertisements for the goods or services available at the particular premises.

This means advertisements which refer to:

•  the business or other activity at the premises;
•  the goods for sale or the services available; and/or
•  the name and qualifications of the firm or person providing the service in the premises.

An advertisement permitted by Class 5 must not:

 have any letters, figures, symbols or similar features in the design over 0.75 of a metre in height, or 0.3 of a metre in height if they are in any Area of Special Control of Advertisements;

 have its highest part at more than 4.6 metres above ground-level, or 3.6 metres in any Area of Special Control of Advertisements;

 have its highest part above the level of the bottom of the first-floor window in the wall where the advertisement is;

 be illuminated, unless the illumination is intended to indicate that medical or similar services or supplies are available at the premises; and

 if the premises are in any Area of Special Control of Advertisements, exceed in area 10 per cent of the external face of the building, measured up to a height of 3.6 metres above ground-level.

Additionally, if the business premises is a shop, an advertisement may be displayed only on an external wall which has a shop window in it.  restaurants and cafes.

Class 6: advertisements on forecourts of business premises

When business premises have a forecourt (or more than one), Class 6 gives a further consent to display the type of advertisement permitted by Class 5, namely notices, signs and advertisements to draw attention to any commercial services, goods for sale, or other services available at the premises. The term ‘forecourt’ includes any enclosing fence, wall, screen or other structure, so long as the means of enclosure is not part of the business premises itself. So a forecourt would include:

•  the enclosed area in front of a newsagents or tobacconist’s shop;
•  the area at a petrol filling station where pumps are situated;
•  a terrace in front of a restaurant or cafe.

A forecourt does not include the area of pavement in front of business premises which forms part of the highway.

Because Class 6 permits advertisements on the forecourt of business premises, any such notices, signs or advertisements must be at ground-level. And the total permitted area for all forecourt advertisements must not exceed 4.6 square metres on each forecourt frontage to the premises. So a building with two forecourt frontages may have advertisements not exceeding 9 square metres in all, provided that those on each frontage do not exceed 4.6 square metres. Forecourt advertisements must not be illuminated in any circumstances. Two examples are shown in illustrations 24 and 25

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