Back in April, I penned an article for Rye News about the three large electronic screens that had suddenly popped up — without planning permission, it's now known — on the A259/Fishmarket Road roundabout.
In an astonishing decision which many people feel could have potentially harmful economic and heritage implications for Rye, Rother District Council's (RDC) planning division has just approved — with conditions — continued use of the screens.
I urge RDC to confirm whether they are going to table this highly contentious planning application at their next planning committee meeting on September 7, where it can be discussed properly and voted on by the full committee.
I'm not alone in pointing out that this decision sets a deeply worrying precedent for Rye, because it will surely open the floodgates for every other business in the town to install electronic screen advertising. How will Rye attract visitors as an historic Cinque Ports town with electronic advertising glaring from every shopfront?
To add insult to injury, the present screens are sited inside the Rye Conservation Area — where historic character and heritage are meant to be protected — and on a busy roundabout where the main object of the technology is to attract the attention of drivers. It doesn't take a genius to argue that "attracting the attention" pretty much equates to "distracting" in this context. National Highways, which is meant to protect road users from harm, does not appear to agree that this advertising contravenes legislation which states that no advertisement should be sited so as to endanger persons using a highway and that it should not impair the visual amenity of the site. The organisation completely fails to recognise Rye's historic character in its recommended conditions, as does RDC by approving the application.
The council, meanwhile, acknowledges that no advertisement should endanger people using the highway, but by deciding to approve the screens RDC seems to have dodged an argument whose implications seems blindingly obvious to everyone else. In short, electronic advertising is designed to distract: that's its raison d'être. Drivers and pedestrians should not be distracted in this way, especially on a busy roundabout.
If this application is not tabled at RDC's planning committee, we will have a situation where Rother's most historic town, described as "rising like a jewel" from Romney Marsh, will soon sink like a stone under a welter of bright, illuminated screens pushing advertising at visitors and local residents everywhere they go.
This is not a question of opposing new technology, or being anti-business: far from it. It's a question of protecting Rye's historic character and heritage from intrusive "in your face" advertising that threatens to assault one wherever one goes in town. I also believe the current screens are positioned too close to the office windows, when the Town & Country Planning regulations state that illuminated advertising needs to be set back at least one metre from the window.
I should point out that the conditions of the screens' planning approval mean that their impact will not be quite as damaging as some people initially feared. A small concession to common sense. The screens will be turned off between 8pm and 8am. In other hours of darkness, such as during winter, a maximum brightness of 300cd/m2 will be allowed. There will also be controls on frequency of adverts, a ban on moving images, animation, flashing, scrolling, intermittent or video elements.
It's unclear whether the screens in question are sophisticated enough to turn themselves off at the right time or to adjust their brightness automatically at specific times of day.
Despite the planning conditions, the fact is that a huge precedent for electronic screen advertising has been set in Rye, and it opens the floodgates for other businesses to follow suit. Does our town council not have an opinion on this? They've been silent on the issue.
Should I receive an update from RDC on whether this planning application is going to be discussed by its planning committee, I will add a note in the comments section of this article. Alternatively, RDC councillors may themselves wish to clarify the situation.
No reason for installing the screens was given by the applicant in his planning application.
I would be interested to read other local people's opinions on this history-making planning development.
