Plans to erect a 1.4m wide by 2.4m high digital advertising board at an MFG Esso forecourt in Chepstow, Monmouthshire, have been approved after initially being declined by the local authority over concerns the billboard would distract drivers.
Monmouthshire Council refused the planning application from advertising firm Wildstone Estates, ruling in January that the display “would introduce a distraction risk to the travelling public using the trunk road (A48) at a location, where a prominent level of driver concentration is required”. The council also found that the sign would “cause unacceptable visual clutter at the site”.
Wildstone appealed authority’s refusal notice, with Planning & Environment Decisions, Wales, finding that the area where the sign is to be placed already contains “a substantial number of advertisements”, and that the section of road in question is characterised by good visibility and is not “unusually complex or hazardous”.
A number of conditions are attached to the board, however. These include the minimum display time for each advert being 10 seconds, a ban on moving images, videos or animations in adverts, and a mandate that the maximum interval time between different advertisements be no longer than 0.1 seconds, with no visual effects such as fading or swiping between posts allowed.
