As reported in the Guardian, I toured the high street on 17th February with two chief planning officers from Redbridge. It was a first time experience for Alan Romain, Head of Enforcement.

We focused on the proliferation of letting agent boards and illuminated signs. Letting boards are covered by local authority planning regulations – however, these aren’t available on the Redbridge website. It’s impossible for us to report a breach of these regulations if we don’t know what they are. I’m particularly interested to know if the letting sign above OneDeko falls within the regulations – it is absolutely HUGE.

What I did find out from Alan Romain is that they must be removed no later than 14 days after completion of sale or granting of tenancy. Mr Romain made a list of all the letting boards in the high street and will be chasing up the property agents concerned.

Massive sign above OneDeko

After doing a bit of research, it seems there is something more that Redbridge could do reduce the problem of letting boards. Councils can apply to the Secretary of State for a Regulation 7 Direction – this removes the ‘deemed consent’ applied to letting signs, meaning that all letting signs require planning permission – which would give us a chance to comment on each application.

Aside from letting boards, the officers catalogued dilapidations, construction advertisements, satellite dishes and illuminations. I can’t help but feel that with a planning department that is already short staffed, heads of departments working part time and the impending council cuts, progress will be difficult.

One thing that both officers explicitly promised, was the removal of the torn and tattered plastic awnings over the windows of the tuition centre above Boots. Let’s see what happens.

An example from Westminster council (click to enlarge)

Standard guidelines for the display of letting/for sale boards

• The board should be no bigger than 2 square metres, but if two boards are joined together to form a single advertisement, a total surface area of 2.3 square metres is permitted.
• For residential for sale and let boards the board must not exceed 0.5 of a square metre, or a total area of 0.6 of a square metre for two joined boards.
• You may only display ONE board on the premises (or two joined to form a “V” as mentioned above).
• No advertisement board is allowed to extend outwards from the wall of a building by more than 1 metre.
• The board must not be illuminated in any circumstances.
• The board must not have the highest part of the advertisement at more than 4.6 metres above ground-level, or 3.6 metres in any Area of Special Control (except where advertising a sale or letting of premises situated in a building above these specified height limits).
• The board must be removed not later than 14 days after completion of the sale or granting of the tenancy.

All outdoor advertisements must also comply with five ‘standard conditions’.

They must:

1. Be kept clean and tidy.
2. Be kept in a safe condition.
3. Have the permission of the owner of the site on which they are displayed (this includes the Highway Authority if the sign is to be placed on highway land).
4. Not obscure, or hinder the interpretation of, official road, rail, waterway or aircraft signs, or otherwise make hazardous the use of these types of transport.
5. Be removed carefully where so required by the planning authority.

Two of Redbridge’s top planning officers have agreed to give more attention to Wanstead High Street.

Above One Deco: lease sign hangs over pedestrians. Alan Romain has offered to tackle all the letting agent signs.

Murray Broad, Head of Development Control and Alan Romain, Head of Enforcement, listened to the concerns of the Wanstead Society at its committee meeting last Wednesday. As a result, Alan Romain will be doing his FIRST EVER walk down our High Street on the 17th February. He’ll be noting unwanted developments, specifically targeting the letting boards which have become a blight over recent years.

There has been frustration as The Wanstead Society has tried to protect the character of the High Street with no results from Redbridge. In the meeting I pointed out that in the last 7 years, not one single enforcement case in the High Street has produced a satisfactory outcome. Shop fronts have been ripped out, buildings have been demolished, windows have been replaced, unsuitable signs have been put up, shutters have appeared – none of which have been reversed or amended.

Alan Romain has worked for Redbridge since the 1980s. In 2008, his department had 1,219 enforcement cases – an untenable situation. The planning chief set him a target of reducing it to 500 in the space of a year. It’s a known fact that when staff are given targets, they will adopt creative (some would say cunning) tactics to meet them. So in 2008-2009 cases of unwanted PVC windows were dropped, as were others like Wanstead Electrical Appliances – where the shop front was ripped out without permission.

We hope that once Alan sees the High Street for himself, he will galvanise his team into action and start giving Wanstead the attention it deserves.