SHOPS and restaurants in Liverpool will have to stump up to £100 a year if they want to carry on putting A-boards outside their premises.
The growing proliferation of the advertising boards has led to hazards for pedestrians, claims Liverpool City Council, and from September businesses will be required to obtain a licence, costing £100, if they want to carry on using them.
The council says that the popularity of A-Boards has seen “hundreds out on the streets at any one time”.
Up until now, it added, they have been put out without permission or any guidance about where they can be used safely, and have often appeared in locations which caused difficulties for disabled people and people using pushchairs.
Now, it is to allow businesses to put out A-boards, providing they have obtained permission, while ensuring that the pavements are accessible to all pedestrians.
The council says the annual fee for this - £50 plus another £50 if you are using council land - will be used to "recoup the costs of managing the process" with Councillor Malcolm Kennedy, cabinet member for regeneration and transport, commenting: “Where else could they get advertising for that amount?"
He added: “We recognise that A-boards are a major form of advertising for many firms, especially small and independent businesses, and we want to support businesses of all types.
“But, on the other hand we have to look at the needs of blind and other disabled people and parents pushing children in buggies for whom the boards can be a real hazard.”
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Mandy de Vere, from News From Nowhere on Bold Street, said that the new rules, which come into force in September, would not apply to the bookshop as its own A-Board sits on the tiling area outside which is within its own premises.
She said: “Of course it makes perfect sense to have regulations about where A-Boards can and can't be placed, especially if they are going to be hazardous to blind people, for example.
"But I can't help but think that there is an element of cynical money-making at work, here.”
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However, Cllr Kennedy insisted: This is not a money-making venture for the council, all the proceeds will allow us to manage the scheme properly. The alternative is to go back to the situation where we just took the boards off the streets and nobody wants to return to those days.”
Meanwhile, Ged Gibbons, Chief Executive of City Central BID, which represents more than 630 businesses in the retail heart of Liverpool city centre, said: ‘’Many businesses will welcome this new, common sense approach to A-boards on our city centre streets.
"These are hard economic times and anything that can support businesses to promote their product to the public has to be welcomed. With footfall so high in the city centre, any form of advertising will be of benefit especially at such an inexpensive rate.
