Safety Fears Lead To Ban On Lamppost Election Posters

THE traditional sight of election posters on lampposts is set to become a thing of the past in Midlothian - for health and safety reasons.

The council has agreed to impose a ban on the movie posters at future elections because of the risks involved in putting them up.

The local authority's director of commercial services, John Blair, said the practise of political activists scaling precariously-placed ladders presented "a clear risk to road users and untrained people erecting and removing posters adjacent to a trafficked road".

Midlothian Council sent a consultation paper to the Scottish Government and Scotland's 32 local authorities seeking guidance on the matter. The Scottish Government agreed the posters were unsightly and posed a danger to road users.

However, of the 13 local authorities that responded to the consultation, only Fife and Moray have already taken the same action.

A report was also sent by the Labour-controlled council to local representatives of all Scotland's other major political parties with the Tories, Lib Dems and SNP all in favour of a ban.

Local Conservative party leader Peter Smaill said: "Historically the purpose of mass poster campaigning was to identify the name of the candidate with the name of the party.

"The absence of the party name from the ballot paper was remedied many years ago so on this view, postering can be dropped."

But some of the smaller parties were taken aback by the proposals, fearing that they would be further marginalised by the move.

Midlothian Green Party convener Ian Baxter said: "An amendment to remove or reduce the presence of posters is likely to result in a reduction in turnout as a result of reduced voter awareness of the poll taking place."

The Scottish Socialist Party, meanwhile, branded the action "fundamentally undemocratic".

Despite the poor response from other local authorities and the smattering of party political objections, the ban was voted through unanimously by councillors yesterday.

Midlothian Provost Adam Montgomery said: "The sight of young men and women climbing ladders at all times of day and in all weathers, is clearly a cause for concern."

April 23, 2008