By Cllr Malcolm Cowan
Welwyn Hatfield council has applied to itself to put adverts on over 40 roundabouts in the borough, the majority of them in WGC. LibDem councillor Malcolm Cowan is concerned. 'WGC was planned on the basis of not having lots of outdoor adverts. Suddenly the council wants to foist them on almost every roundabout, hoping to make some money from them. They are likely to be an eyesore, and make maintaining the roundabouts harder.
'There is also a safety concern - advertisers want them to be seen, but this means drivers' attention is diverted at what is a critical time, meeting traffic coming round a roundabout often with limited visibility.
He adds 'I have been working with both borough and county council staff to reduce unauthorised illegal adverts, such as at the entrance to Gosling stadium. Now we could face 'legal' adverts in the middle of roundabouts but illegal ones around the edge - everyone will be confused. It is only a few months since the county council wanted to erect a rather smaller number of adverts on roundabouts and the borough council was concerned - now it seems to be the other way round - very odd.'