{"id":1722,"date":"2010-08-31T16:54:57","date_gmt":"2010-08-31T16:54:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ihbconline.co.uk\/newsachive\/?p=1722"},"modified":"2010-08-31T16:54:57","modified_gmt":"2010-08-31T16:54:57","slug":"pickles-to-councils-cut-the-clutter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=1722","title":{"rendered":"Pickles to Councils: &#8216;cut the clutter&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><\/strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Communities secretary Eric  Pickles and transport secretary Philip Hammond have written to councils to ask  them to reduce the amount of highway signage in urban and rural  areas.<br \/>\n<\/span><br \/>\nThis move to \u201ccut the clutter\u201d \u2013 which aims to reduce  unnecessary signs, railings and bollards in a bid to make streets tidier and  safer \u2013 has been welcomed by the Campaign to Protect Rural England which has  been campaigning on the issue for nearly 15 years.<\/p>\n<p>All local authorities  in England outside London are required to produce new Local Transport Plans to  come into force from April 2011, while London local authorities have to produce  new Local Implementation Plans by the same date.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Pickles says that  many traffic signs and railings are put up in the mistaken belief that they are  legally required. Although some signs are required by law, Government advice is  that they are most effective when kept to a minimum.<\/p>\n<p>Eric Pickles said:  &#8220;Our streets are losing their English character. We are being overrun by scruffy  signs, bossy bollards, patchwork paving and railed off roads wasting taxpayers&#8217;  money that could be better spent on fixing potholes or keeping council tax down.  We need to \u2018cut the clutter&#8217;. \u00a0Too many overly cautious town hall officials are  citing safety regulations as the reason for cluttering up our streets with an  obstacle course when the truth is very little is dictated by law. Common sense  tells us uncluttered streets have a fresher, freer authentic feel, which are  safer and easier to maintain. \u00a0Organisations like Civic Voice, Living Streets  and fixmystreet can help councils provide a Big Society solution \u2013 local people  carrying out street audits will bring power and character back to  neighbourhoods.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In 2006 a survey by the Hampshire section of the  Campaign to Protect Rural England of a seven-mile section of the B3006 in the  South Downs National Park revealed an average of 45 signs per mile.<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.planningportal.gov.uk\/england\/professionals\/news\/archive\/2010\/august2010\/2010_08_week_4\/260810_3\" target=\"_blank\">Search Planning Portal<br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Communities secretary Eric Pickles and transport secretary Philip Hammond have written to councils to ask them to reduce the amount of highway signage in urban and rural areas. This move to \u201ccut the clutter\u201d \u2013 which aims to reduce unnecessary &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=1722\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sector-newsblog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1722"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1723,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1722\/revisions\/1723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}