Pubs face A-board ban
9 October, 2008
Council wants signs removed to help the blind
Pubs have been warned they face huge fines if they do not remove A-boards from outside their premises because blind people could walk into them.
City of York Council has written to businesses in the area telling them to get rid of the boards or face potential fines of up to £2,500.
The move is understood to have followed from a complaint from a charity for the blind.
Marc Allinson, who owns freehouse the Artful Dodger, in the city centre is among a group of traders fighting the decision.
“Everyone got a letter saying we could get fined. It’s just ridiculous and smacks of council workers trying to justify their jobs," he said.
“Nobody has been able to provide any evidence that this has actually been a problem.
“This could lead to a drop in trade and with things the way they are at the moment it could be enough to force some pubs to close.”
The traders have come up with a set of proposals in a bid to keep the boards. These include having a sign size restriction and putting reflective material on the boards to make them easier for the partially-sighted to see.
Kev Jones, licensee of Briganties, also in the city centre, removed his sign and suffered a 25 per cent drop in trade.
He said: “I lost a lot of my Sunday lunch trade and people didn’t know what was going on in here on certain nights because I couldn’t display it on the board.”
But Diane Roworth, chief officer of York Blind and Partially Sighted Society, said the signs were a serious hazard.
“It is something we feel strongly about and they do cause problems.
“There are so many obstructions on pavements. People get used to where the permanent fixtures are but A-boards do not go back in exactly the same place.”
She added there were no figures of accidents involving people with A-boards because people are embarrassed about reporting them.
A spokeswoman for City of York Council confirmed businesses that did not comply could face fines.
She said: “We have had a number of complaints from partially-sighted people who have walked into these signs and are tackling the problem throughout the city centre, area by area.
“It’s important to point out that the same rules apply to shops and businesses throughout the city. We will be taking this issue up with every shop or business found to be placing signs on the public highway.”
Last month The Publican revealed the Black Dog in Chilmark, Wiltshire, was told to remove a roadsign on the A303 due to fears from the Highways Agency that it could encourage drink-driving.
The Highways Agency has since back-tracked and is reviewing the decision.
Readers' comments
The nanny state has gone mad!, we had 2 x "A" boards, one chained to our Pole sign which was off the public pathway, the other on a triangle piece of grass up a steep bank chained to a concrete slab. Our Pub/ Restaurant is within 250 acres of common. We had to take our boards down as they were deemed a "Trip Hazard" - nevermind the undulating footpaths, protrucing tree roots, scrubland, Rabbit Holes, fallen trees etc - here the council would not do a great deal as people using the common had a "Duty of Care" to look out for such Hazards.
The Council,s are like the government jobs for the boys, they go to work Monday and by Tuesday lunchtime are talking about the weekend, in the meantime they put problems in the way to stop people working and target landlords, for every man working there is now 10 council workers trying to stop him. This government are fit for the promenade in Llandudno with the Punch & Judy show with Mr Brown in a star role.
are they going to sue parents that leave push chairs outside shops or these hazardous invalid scooters, what about dogs tied up outside shops. it is all getting STUPID
Yes ban people walking down the street ban dogs cats birds from flying cars bikes hell sod it ban every one from leaving their house and we will all be safe and sound ! Oh but don't smoke you might poison the cat !
I wonder if the same councils take a similar stance on the erecting of pointless bollards dotted needlessly around towns at a huge cost to the council tax payer, for the visually impaired to walk into? Most of which are purely for aesthetics and not for much needed advertising for trade, which I may point out benefits those councils in exorbitant business rates!
Fabulous! And now these guys have lost millions of our rates they will need even more clever wheezes to ensure their indexed pensions continue to be paid. Or perhaps there is another way. How about they join the rest of us and get the pensions that they are prepared to pay for. Its incredible isn't it that cretins such as this . ..
It seems these jobsworths are in league with Ash who are trying there best to close down all pubs, isn't it time to stop all this rubbish and get on with using a little common sense
In fairness, the article does refer to signs on the public highway; seems reasonable?
Chris is right. Pay the right fee to the council and you could build a replica of Noahs ark on the pavement and no-one would bat an eye-lid. Most A boards are usually tight to the property or the roadside of the pavement otherwise everyman and his dog would walk into them. Some even drop over the councils bollards. Actually I think that sums this latest lunnacy up....a load of "bollards"
Unless I'm mistaken, the councils need to be focusing more on getting taxpayers money back that was lost in Iceland somewhere not persecuting the poor publicans over A-board signs.
Banning A Boards because of the blind? What about everything else in the street? Councils TRY SORTING YOUR ROADS AND PAVEMENTS OUT FIRST! The amount of holes and things sticking out of them, and they want pubs to take inside one of the things keeping helping us to stay above water. Come on, whens the joke going to be over, we hold our hands up now, it isnt funny no more!
WHY WHY WHY are the councils and possibly the government trying so VERY hard to ruin the TRADE. Are they .....in fact yes they must be THICK useless civil servants, we should ban them all from our businesses.
If you're going to penalise pubs signs, what about those yellow police signs they put up after an accident? Or temporary bus stops or engineering works on the pavement? How abuot all those people walking down the road? They're all potential unknown hazards for blind people too.
IT SEEMSTO ME THATI T IS THE JOBS WORTH IN THE COUNCIL WHO ARE BLIND TO CMMON SENSE OUR HANDICAPPED CITIZENS ARE MORE THAN CAPABLE THAN SOME THINK
I had a great visit from the "highways agency" on monday, apperently my "A boards" were obstructing the pavement, so i offered to move them both, what is strange is how the entire pavement is permanently covered in cars and lorries from 6am until 10pm everyday! can anyone explain how these illegally obstructive and dangerous vehicles and thier owners are able to avoid the law ? this should be the priority, not the A boards!
Unbelievable! 40 years of Pubs advertising beers, entertainment etc by the use of 'A' boards and now, suddenly, they are a menace to society. Should all the swinging signs above Pubs be removed as they pose a threat by possibly falling? Should all walls around pubs be 6' high lest someone falls over a smaller one? Should pubs have all doors removed in case of trapped fingers? Should Pubs be open at all for alchohol cause bodily damage and to much causes physical violence on occasions? The list is endless. When will these nannyists go to bed and bloody well stay there out of harms way?
Hmmmm.. "She added there were no figures of accidents involving people with A-boards because people are embarrassed about reporting them" Er, so how does she know that they are hazardous? Guess work? Slow office day? Not reaching targets? I don't think I can comment further lest I be labelled as anti "visually challenged" citizens which I am not. I don't know why all these various agencies just get together and ban pubs altogether. It would be far less painful in the long run than this slow lingering death. Chip chip chip.......
this is just rubbish. 90% of all street furniture and obstuctions are the councils themselves. Just go and count them. I also particularly love the miracle of "if you pay them for a licence for offending tables and chairs they cease to be an obstruction". Jobsworth, nonscense. Traffic Warden mentality. When will they remember that they are public servants. They work for us and we pay their wages.