Planning Guidance on Outdoor Advertising

Overview

The Council has decided to review the planning guidance on outdoor advertising. This consultation is to get your views on:

• What types of outdoor advertising are acceptable
• Where it is suitable to have outdoor advertising in the city
• The change to digital advertising

Your views will help decide what the new planning guidance should say about outdoor advertising. Following this consultation, new guidance will be drafted and presented to the Planning Committee for approval. It will then be used to assess new outdoor advertising applications.

Why your views matter

Out of home or outdoor advertising can be found in most towns and cities, often by the side of the road, on the pavement or in public places. It is used by companies to market products and services to us.

Outdoor advertising can include:

• Large format – the billboards that you see on the side of the road or on scaffolding when a building is being renovated.
• Small format – adverts that you might see on the side of buildings, on vacant sites or on bus shelters.

Outdoor advertising is controlled through the planning system and requires ‘advertisement consent’. To help make decisions on whether outdoor adverting is acceptable or not, the Council has guidance on ‘Advertisements, Sponsorship and City Dressing’.

You may already be aware that outdoor adverting is changing; adverts are moving from paper to digital screens. This allows for more frequent advert changes and moving images. There are a number of digital screens around the City including the bus shelters on Princes Street. It is expected this change to digital will continue.