Is putting up posters illegal?

Michael Collins

I'm wondering if someone knows anything about this...

Someone I know who is involved in a non-profit drama group just received 4 fines in the post for €125 each! The group were putting on a performace and naturally were promoting it. They used small A4 sized signs on lamp-posts, just giving the details of the play and where it was on etc. They could only have been up for a week. Anyway the fines arrrived in the post to the drama group, a total of €500.

I'm just curious to know do you have to get permission or what? Is it just completely illegal to put up signs? You see signs everywhere on the street, all over town, I doubt they all get permission. Or is it just the council trying to pull a fast one?

Cheers

hunkypex

http://www.environ.ie/press/litter.html

particularly:

Posters and Signs
___The law forbids the putting up of posters/signs on poles or on other structures in public places unless you have the written permission of the owner of the pole or other structure in advance of putting up the posters/signs.

Contact your local authority, they are responsible for litter control in your area and will be able to advise you on your duties and obligations under the litter laws.

resulting in:

Michael Collins

Cheers hunkypex, just wanted to make sure. Now, to tell the government about all those plastic cable ties left over from the last election...

Nice pic btw

Borzoi

handy link that hunkypex

I was walkiing in to my estate last night and counted the for sale/to let signs on the railings = eighteen of them

I've no objection to putting one up outside your own house but not where they are.

methinks i have a job for the management agents.

Victor

Shame on your friends Michael Collins. Even if what they were doing was non-commercial, it was illegal.

Originally posted by Borzoi
I was walkiing in to my estate last night and counted the for sale/to let signs on the railings = eighteen of them I've no objection to putting one up outside your own house but not where they are. methinks i have a job for the management agents.

Putting estate agent signs on public property is littering. They should be in a non-nuisance position on private property (with permission).

You mention "management agents" which hints at a private /common complex. Some management agents have designated "sign zones" (each firm would be limited to 2 perhaps standard signs, one "for sale", one "to let"). Otherwise it is private property and the council have much less power to enforce (unless there is a large amount of littering - you can't have your own private dump / derelict site).

Michael Collins

Shame on your friends Michael Collins. Even if what they were doing was non-commercial, it was illegal.

Yeh I know, I know :-) Just it seems a fairly big fine, I mean considering littering is just a €25 fine - all these signs have been removed as well, it's not like they were going to leave them there. Nevertheless the law IS the law I suppose.

Although I seriously doubt everybody gets fined - you see so many signs up, everywhere you go. I'm guessing it's also illegal to leave horrible plastic cable-ties that stick out on the lamp posts too bet ya nobody gets fined for that oh no...

sceptre

That's 25 quid (edit, er euros) per offence though - so a guy putting flyers on car windows all around town could face a very large bill if the Corpo/Council decided to take it further. As it happens, the Limerick corpo generally phone the idiot responsible and get them to go around and take them off cars. At least they do when I report people for it - I live in the middle of the city and those flyers on cars become litter on the ground very quickly - the city is filthy enough without organised littering.

I don't know what they do about posters on poles. IMHO the posters on poles are less of a problem but from the POV of the corpo they can find it easier to prove that the posters were put up (they're still there after 6pm when everyone drives home). Relatively speaking (at least relative to the menace of car flyers) the €125 fine seems a little steep but as always, it's worth at least being aware of the legality of something before doing it.

Those plastic-clippy things are pretty damn ugly all right - presumably they live forever too.