Town council to tackle fly-posting

MELKSHAM Town Council is working on plans to tackle the issue of fly-posting in the town.

At last week’s town council asset management meeting, councillors voted unanimously in favour to create new working practices for their town caretakers to help control the problem.

Currently, responsibility sits with Wiltshire Council to remove posters and signs placed illegally around the town. Wiltshire Council can also issue fines to offenders of up to £2,500. 

Following last week’s decision, the town council’s clerk, Linda Roberts, will meet with the street scene team at Wiltshire Council to establish an agreement with them for the town council to take a ‘soft’ approach to fly-posting.

This could involve removing fly-posting that has not been given permission or contacting offenders where possible to remind them of their obligations and giving them two days’   notice prior to removal of their material.

Assistant to the town clerk, Jeff Mills, told Melksham News, “The council is looking to take a common-sense approach to the problem of fly-posting. We would never prevent a resident posting about a lost animal, for example.”

At last week’s meeting, cllr Terri Welch said, “The sooner we start this the better.”

Mayor cllr Adrienne Westbrook added,  “No-one has any objections to events putting posters up, but it’s got to come down again within a reasonable amount of time. This will help to stop the irresponsible fly-posting, and the businesses that are just leaving things up – the posters are absolutely disgusting, they are filthy, and they are dirty.”

The new working practices and guidance will be  included on an upcoming town council meeting agenda for approval, before it can be adopted and implemented.