Plans For Portslade LED Advertising Screen Refused On Appeal

Plans to put up an LED advertising screen in a “residential setting” have been refused on appeal.

Brighton and Hove City Council turned down Alight Media’s bid to erect a 6m x 3m screen on the side of a building in Carlton Terrace, Portslade, because of its size and impact on the residential setting.

In its appeal, Alight said that the proposed site was on the commercial western or Portslade side of the road that is called Boundary Road on the Hove side.

The company’s appeal statement said:

“The proposed advertisement would face directly on to a street scene where commercial, leisure, residential and public uses are in close proximity.

“This is a typical urban area where the overall visual impression of the street scene at the point of the appeal site is one of openness and where the road passes through a built-up area with development, activity and signage on all sides.”

But planning inspector Janette Davis has ruled against the application, saying that the site was “inappropriate”.

The inspector said:

“From what I could see, the overall size and elevated height of the advertisement display would significantly exceed other advertisements in the area and, along with its illuminated nature, would cause it to stand out as being overly large and incongruous in this location, where it would be seen in context with the nearby two-storey residential dwellings.

“Consequently, the proposal would be visually intrusive and would represent an inappropriate incursion into this partially residential environment, resulting in harm to the amenity of the area.

“I acknowledge that conditions could be imposed to control hours of illumination, luminance levels and the frequency and manner of change between images, among other things.

“However, the imposition of conditions would not overcome my concerns regarding the inappropriate location of the proposal development and its harmful effect on amenity.”