Second giant roadside screen turned down in Preston

A giant illuminated advertising screen, planned for a busy Preston road, is set to be blacked out by councillors just weeks after a similar one was also given the red light in the city.
Impression of how the advertising board would look (Image: Clearglow)Impression of how the advertising board would look (Image: Clearglow)
Impression of how the advertising board would look (Image: Clearglow)

The Lancashire company behind a 4.08m by 2.4m digital display, to be mounted on the side of a building in London Road, has been told the screen would have too big an impact on the street and be "visually intrusive."

The proposal has been recommended for refusal by planning officers who also rejected a 6m by 3m screen next to the former Neptune pub in Strand Road for the same reasons.

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That planning application by a separate company was taken to an appeal, only to be thrown out by a planning inspector last month.

Neptune House where the free-standing advertising screen would have stood in the car park on the left.Neptune House where the free-standing advertising screen would have stood in the car park on the left.
Neptune House where the free-standing advertising screen would have stood in the car park on the left.

Officers said neither presented a danger to drivers, even though they were sited on main roads. But their size and position would have made them "harmful to the visual amenity" of the two areas.

It is not yet known if the second application will be taken to appeal if councillors formally throw it out at the next planning committee.

The latest screen was earmarked for the gable end wall of a former massage parlour.

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In its pitch to the local authority, LED display firm Clearglow of Mawdesley said its intention was to make digital advertising affordable to local businesses in prime locations.

But council officers said the proposed sign was "noticeably larger in scale and brighter in illumination than any within the immediate area."

In rejecting the plan, the officers said: "The visual impact will be significant due to it being a new addition which would be easily visible from street level.

"It would be an incongruous prominent feature in the street scene with views likely to be possible from London Road, Livesey Street and James Street. It is determined that this particular location is unsuitable for the scale of advertisement proposed."

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The application was compared with the Strand Road scheme where a larger screen (6m by 3m), submitted by a company called Clear Channel of London, was also turned down by the council and then failed at appeal.

"Whilst it is acknowledged that the dismissed appeal (sign) is not in close proximity to this current proposal, the visual impacts on the respective area are similar due to the size and scale and prominent location of both proposals," says the officers report.

"It is considered that the proposed digital display advertisement sign, by virtue of its siting, height, scale, size and illumination would be incongruous and visually intrusive, detracting from the character of the area."

Both proposed screens could provide 48 static advertising posters at a rate of one every 10 seconds.

The Strand Road proposal would have been situated on the former pub car park between Neptune House - now a block of six flats - and an office building next door.

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