The Act Commentary on Sections Advertisements Section 34 Removal of placards and posters
121.Section 225 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 enables a local authority to serve a notice on a person who has illegally displayed placards and posters, and to remove or obliterate these posters or placards where that person has failed to do so himself within the time specified in that notice.
122.Where a person has failed to comply with such a notice, section 34 enables a local authority to recover the costs they incurred in removing or obliterating the illegally-displayed posters or placards.
123.In the first instance, the costs of removal are recoverable from the person identified in the poster or placard as having displayed it or having caused it to be displayed. However, if he cannot be identified, subsection (4) permits the local authority to recover costs from an identifiable person whose goods, services or concerns are publicised in the poster or placard (i.e. the beneficiary of the advertisement). Costs can only be recovered if he has failed to comply with a notice requiring him to remove the placard or poster within a specified time.
124.Subsection (5) enables any person suffering damage to land or chattels caused by a local authority who is exercising these powers to receive compensation for that damage - other than a person who displayed, or caused the display, of the offending poster or placard.
125.Subsection (6) amends the 1990 Act to enable a local authority to enter both occupied and unoccupied land in order to remove unlawful posters or placards.