Criminal damage charges were dramatically dropped yesterday against three women arrested while flyposting on an illegal billboard leased to Maiden Outdoor Advertising.
Billboard - Bookfair
The three north London women were due to appear at Tottenham Magistrates' court today, following their arrest by two van-loads of police last October on Green Lanes, Harringay. They had been publicising a bookfair, whilst distributing leaflets against the illegal hoarding, erected without planning permission, and their campaign to reclaim it as a community noticeboard.
Their campaign followed a survey of the neighbourhood which showed that 48 out of 50 billboards in the area had no planning permission. Companies like Maiden make huge profits from putting up billboards wherever they like, without local consultation or the necessary planning permission.
The women attended Hornsey police station a total of three times before they were charged on the strength of a statement from Maiden, which claimed the hoarding was a lawful construction. The charge of criminal damage can in incur a penalty of three months in prison plus a hefty fine - the irony of the situation and the hypocrisy of the statement from Maiden was not lost on the three women. Maiden was expected to claim damages of nearly £700, but a letter received within the last few days from a Haringey Council's planning enforcement officer stated that the board did not have the required planning permission and that this was a criminal offence. Less than 24 hours before the trial, the Crown Prosecution Service dropped the charges as not being in the public interest.
One of the women arrested commented: "It seems that Maiden and companies like them flout planning laws and commit criminal offences as a matter of course, in order to maximise their profits. But when will they be prosecuted and made accountable for blighting our environment with their unsightly product propaganda?"
The victory of the community-spirited flyposters over the corporate cowboys will be a tonic for subvertisers everywhere. Billboards blight our surroundings whether they have planning permission or not. Perhaps eventually we can get rid of these unwanted structures from our streets altogether, along with the exploitative companies which inflict them on us.
Their campaign followed a survey of the neighbourhood which showed that 48 out of 50 billboards in the area had no planning permission. Companies like Maiden make huge profits from putting up billboards wherever they like, without local consultation or the necessary planning permission.
The women attended Hornsey police station a total of three times before they were charged on the strength of a statement from Maiden, which claimed the hoarding was a lawful construction. The charge of criminal damage can in incur a penalty of three months in prison plus a hefty fine - the irony of the situation and the hypocrisy of the statement from Maiden was not lost on the three women. Maiden was expected to claim damages of nearly £700, but a letter received within the last few days from a Haringey Council's planning enforcement officer stated that the board did not have the required planning permission and that this was a criminal offence. Less than 24 hours before the trial, the Crown Prosecution Service dropped the charges as not being in the public interest.
One of the women arrested commented: "It seems that Maiden and companies like them flout planning laws and commit criminal offences as a matter of course, in order to maximise their profits. But when will they be prosecuted and made accountable for blighting our environment with their unsightly product propaganda?"
The victory of the community-spirited flyposters over the corporate cowboys will be a tonic for subvertisers everywhere. Billboards blight our surroundings whether they have planning permission or not. Perhaps eventually we can get rid of these unwanted structures from our streets altogether, along with the exploitative companies which inflict them on us.
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