From The Sunday Times

February 15, 2009

N-road adverts ‘a safety hazard’

The NRA is to challenge Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown council’s plan to erect up to 60 roadside adverts on safety grounds

Ruadhán MacEoin

The National Roads Authority (NRA) has warned a local authority that it will oppose its plans to erect up to 60 kerbside billboards, claiming that they would endanger drivers.

Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown county council has awarded Clear Channel Ireland a 10-year contract to build the scrolling 2.7-sq-metre adverts in an attempt to raise €10m. The roads authority fears they will be placed on national routes.and is also concerned other cash-strapped councils could follow Dun Laoghaire’s lead.

Sean O’Neill of the NRA said the adverts “would be a traffic hazard and would endanger public safety by distracting drivers”. There are four national routes in the area — the N11, N31, M11 and M50 — all with high traffic volumes.

The council, which has already spent ¤700,000 this year in expectation of the revenue the adverts would generate, insists no planning permission is required. But O’Neill said the NRA was examining its options to ensure national routes are not used. “The authority is going to exercise its right to protect the national-route infrastructure and its safety requirements,” he said.

At its monthly meeting last week, the council gave Clear Channel the go-ahead for the billboards, which will be free-standing and illuminated. It used a planning provision known as part 8, normally used to facilitate public works such as sewage pipes.

Richard Shakespeare, the director of the environment and culture department, told councillors, “there \ many in residential estates, but we’ll look again”.

A council spokeswoman said this weekend: “We have not brought forward any proposal to erect advertising signage on any of the four national roads.”

Ciaran Cuffe, the Green Party TD for Dun Laoghaire, called the proposals a “crazy scheme” and “visual pollution which does not respect the heritage of the area”.