Committee Date: 22/08/2013 Application Number: 2013/04695/PA Accepted: 01/07/2013 Application Type: Advertisement Target Date: 26/08/2013 Ward: Ladywood Summer Row, Birmingham, B3 1JU Display of 1 no. internally illuminated advertisement hoarding Applicant: Agent: Signature Outdoor Ltd Vienna House, International Square, Birmingham International Park, Bickenhill Lane, Birmingham, B37 7GN Recommendation Approve Temporary 1. Proposal 1.1. This application proposes the installation of a digital LED display panel. This panel is an amended scheme following an earlier approval for a similar panel in a portrait format. 1.2. In addition to being installed in a different orientation, this landscape format panel (at some 6.3m wide X 3.55m high X 0.5m deep including the surround) would be marginally smaller than the previously approved advert in this location. 1.3. Only static images would be displayed. 1.4. Consent is sought for the standard 5-year long period. Proposed Elevation Site Plan 2. Site & Surroundings 2.1. The application site is on Summer Row fronting onto Paradise Circus before Great Charles Street. The site is within a commercial context. To the north of the site is University College of Birmingham, to the south is The Copthorne Hotel and to the south west is a multi storey car park. There are a number of advertisements within the vicinity. In addition to fascia signs there is a 96 sheet hoarding opposite, 6 sheet on-street panel and a large hoarding attached at high level to the rear of the Central Library building. The application site is outside the boundary of the Jewellery Quarter Conservation Area which runs along Summer Row and benefits from a well planted backdrop. 2.2. The application site previously accommodated a totem style combined clock and advertisement. Page 1 of 5
Location Street View 3. Planning History 3.1. 19.07.2012 Approval 2012/02977/PA - Display of 1 no. internally illuminated free standing sign (not implemented) 4. Consultation/PP Responses 4.1. Transportation Development No objection to a temporary consent for a period that would not conflict with the program for the delivery of the Paradise Circus redevelopment. 4.2. An objection has been received from an occupier of a residential tower (near to Ladywood Middleway) whose concerns relate to the highway safety implications of the advert, which the objector considers would distract motorists putting pedestrian safety at risk. 5. Policy Context 5.1. Birmingham Unitary Development Plan 2005, the draft Birmingham Development Plan; National Planning Policy Framework 2012 together with Jewellery Quarter Conservation Area Character Appraisal and Management Plan and Location of Advertisement Hoardings (1998) which have been adopted as Supplementary Planning Guidance. 6. Planning Considerations 6.1. The Town and Country Planning (Control of Advertisements) Regulations (2007) restrict Local Planning Authorities to consider only amenity and public safety when determining applications for consent to display advertisements. AMENITY 6.2. The NPPF, at policy 67, states that poorly placed adverts can have a negative impact on the appearance of the built environment. It adds that only those advertisements that will clearly have an appreciable impact on a building to their surroundings should be subject to a Local Authority s detailed assessment. Finally it states that cumulative impact should be considered. 6.3. The principle of the installation of an advertisement panel here has been established by the previous consent. The current proposal is an alternative design which essentially rotates the advert from a portrait to landscape format. I do not consider that this would materially change the visual impact of the advert from that as previously approved. 6.4. The proposed sign would preserve the character and setting of the nearby Conservation Area to the rear. 6.5. I therefore raise no objection to the proposed hoardings on the grounds of public amenity based on the pre-paradise Circus redevelopment highway layout. Post Page 2 of 5
redevelopment the hoarding would not be visually acceptable due to its prominence and lack of backdrop. For this reason, together with the conflict with the approved highway layout I recommend that consent be limited until 30 th September 2014. HIGHWAY SAFETY 6.6. Transportation Development raises no objection and I concur with this conclusion. The proposed amended sign would have an identical highway impact to the previously approved hoarding. I therefore recommend that the same conditions attached to the previous consent are replicated. LENGTH OF CONSENT 6.7. The submission requests that consent is granted for a 5 year period. However, since the previous grant of consent for a hoarding, permission has been granted for the comprehensive redevelopment of Paradise Circus. This includes significant alterations to the highway layout, including removing the gyratory arrangement. The proposed advertisement is not compatible with the approved highway layout, being on a pathway hard up against the Lionel Street exit slip road. 6.8. Taking into account the program for the redevelopment of the site (of which the highway alterations is to be the first phase of development); I consider that a consent that expires on the 30 th September 2014 is appropriate in this instance. 7. Conclusion 7.1. I therefore recommend that this application is granted temporary consent until the 30th September 2014. 8. Recommendation 8.1. Temporary consent subject to the following conditions: 1 Limits the use of advert 2 Prevents the display of the advert in conjunction with the previously approved hoarding 3 Requires the scheme to be in accordance with the listed approved plans 4 Limits the approval to 30th September 2014 Reason for Approval 1 Birmingham City Council grants Advertisement Consent subject to the condition(s) listed below (if appropriate). The reason for granting consent is because the development is in accordance with: Policy 8.70 and Development Control Policy DC19 of the Birmingham Unitary Development Plan 2005; the Guidelines for the Location of Advertisement Hoardings 1998, which has been adopted as Supplementary Planning Guidance; and the National Planning Policy Framework. Case Officer: Nicholas Jackson Page 3 of 5
Photo(s) Fig. 1 Application Site Page 4 of 5
Location Plan This map is reproduced from the Ordnance Survey Material with the permission of Ordnance Survey on behalf of the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office Crown Copyright. Unauthorised reproduction infringes Crown Copyright and may lead to prosecution or civil proceedings. Birmingham City Council. Licence No.100021326, 2010 Page 5 of 5