Guerrilla ‘cancelled’ stickers for town centre fly posting raised as solution to ‘scruffy’ posters

Issues with fly posting on empty shop windows and how it can be prevented have once again come under debate by local business owners – with guerrilla style ‘cancelled’ stickers put forward as an option for a second time.

Wrexham.com raised feedback we have had regarding fly posting at last night’s Town Centre Forum,
with local Councillor Bill Baldwin also saying he had walked to the meeting and seen various posters on empty shop fronts that “looked a mess”.

On a brief walk through four town centre streets we observed a range of sellotaped, glued and blu-tacked posters from six separate promotors for both forthcoming and well expired events.

Some of the A3 posters appear to be placed inside the empty shops, however do not appear to be legitimately installed, rather fed backwards through a gap in a pushed door until suspended against the glass from the inside. Tape then holds the posters in place, often with an unsightly pile of failed attempts below them.

In re-run of the debate from 2015 on the issue suggestions of placing ‘cancelled’ stickers on top of the posters was floated, to dissuade future fly posters and encourage those placing them to remove them.

Eagles Meadow Manager Kevin Critchley enquired why the fly posters could not just be removed, and pointed out if no action was taken they could stay ‘forever more’, describing the fly posting in the town centre as ‘terrible’.

Matt McHale from La Baguette noted that previous street clean ups organised via the Forum had been to combat such things, and there had been no issue cleaning up private property and removing such paper signs attached to properties before.

Clarification was also given on the subject of promotional banners rather than posters that are sometimes put up in an ad-hoc manner on railings or lamp posts around town – and also secured above some streets.

The policy is none are allowed, however unless they are blocked motorist or children’s views of roads it appears they are often not a priority for removal.

It was revealed to those present there are three official banner areas in the town centre, with suspended banners as you may have seen over Lord Street and Hope Street. Such banners are free to place there, however the physical placement must be paid for, and the banners must be of specification to not cause a health and safety issue.

Each banner should only be up for 6-8 weeks as a maximum, however one on Lord Street does appear to have outstayed that period. Chester Street may also have a banner spot soon once discussions are complete between council departments, with Tŷ Pawb being a possible user of the space.

Questions were raised about the banner congregations on the ‘B&Q’ roundabout on Mold Road, with the meeting told the hedge is private (Wrexham Glyndwr University) property so placements there are not touched by the council, whereas the railings are not and therefore should not be used.

The idea of ‘designated areas’ or specific boards for promotion was floated, as was a process where a promotor could visit a specific person to organised a non-messy community friendly display.

One forum member enquired if fly posting was really that much of an issue, noting that often they promote local events that bring people into town, which was the point of such Forum meetings and he did not believe it turned people off visiting Wrexham.

Mr Critchley replied: “When they are scattered, and for something that finished months ago they start to look abysmal, it makes the town look scruffy.”

This page on Gov.UK was also mentioned to report the issue, where it notes “Fly-posters usually advertise events with posters, stickers or bills that are put up without the permission of the property owner. Fly-posting is a criminal offence.” The page points people to their local council website to deal with the issue, which Wrexham Council have said is an offence.

The Council’s Streetscene team was referenced however it was unclear in the meeting what, if anything, they were allowed to do on private property. Looking after the meeting we have found this PDF that states they would remove fly posting within 5 days from council property, and “We will offer to remove graffiti/flyposting from private property/land” noting they would charge landlords for the service.

Back in 2013 the issue of ’embarrassing’ looking frontages of empty shops was raised in the forum, with fly posting being cited as a contributing factor.

In 2015 the issue surfaced again (picture from 2015 below) with town centre clean ups taking place to remove such posters as well as cleaning streets. Posters promptly reappeared, with the now famous suggestion raised by Bob Gray to apply ‘cancelled’ stickers to the event posters to dissuade their further use.

Improvements to the frontages of shops have also included the purchase and installation of vinyl sheets to change an empty shopfront into something more pleasant.

Council Officers and the Forum Steering Group will be looking into the legalities of the fly posters, removal and any possible action, and will feed back at future meetings.

Top pic: four of many shop fronts in the town centre with posters attached outside, or placed inside doors from the outside suspended by sellotape.