Planning inspector overrules city council on giant advertising screen
A planning inspector has overruled Birmingham City Council’s decision not to grant planning permission for an innovative city centre advertising hoarding.
Birmingham-based digital display technology provider Elonex had applied for permission last year to install the wraparound illuminated LED screen at 5 Priory Square – the intersection of Corporation Street and Bull Street.
Elonex had submitted a letter from the Retail Business Improvement District (BID) in support of the application.
The BID said it believed the proposed installation would bring some light and animation to the empty space.
It said any installation should have an agreement in place with the commercial operator to provide advertising at no cost and that the content would help with the regeneration of this part of the city centre.
However, the city council’s planning committee ruled in February that the “proposed advertisement screen by reason of its scale, illumination and location would present an unacceptably dominant and unduly obtrusive feature in the street scene and on the building. It would adversely affect the visual amenity of the existing building and street scene”. It therefore rejected the application.
However, the latest meeting of the committee was informed that a planning inspector had granted permission for the display following an appeal by the applicant.
The report to the committee stated the appeal had been allowed because the inspector considered that although the proposal would be larger and more prominent than the other adverts and light sources in the vicinity, it would not appear incongruous in the context of its setting and instead reflected its city centre location.
“Although the advert would appear prominently on the shopping centre, it would not be disproportionate with the building’s scale, would break up the unappealing blank massing of the building and therefore would contribute positively to the street scene,” it stated.
