A DIGITAL advertising board will be allowed on the forecourt of a busy petrol station after Welsh Government claims it would distract drivers were dismissed.
The 1.4 metres wide and 2.4m high free standing “D6 display board” was proposed for the entrance to the Larkfield Esso petrol station on Newport Road, Chepstow but rejected by Monmouthshire County Council due to the concerns of the Welsh Government which is the highway authority for A48.
Advertising firm Wildstone Estates appealed the decision to Planning and Environment Decisions Wales and an independent inspector ruled in its favour after visiting the forecourt and observing the “already visually busy environment”.
Inspector G Hall described the forecourt, where there are aslo a number of other businesses, as containing “a substantial number of advertisements, including freestanding, wall-mounted, and building-mounted signs associated with the petrol station and neighbouring commercial units”.
Hall also noted there is a freestanding ATM and a self-service locker at the site “all contributing to an overtly commercial active environment” and said the addition of the digital advertisement “would not encroach into or alter the character of the wider, predominantly residential area” when viewed against the forecourt and other signage.
The inspector also said they weren’t convinced by the road safety arguments but acknowledged there had been two collisions in the past two years.
Their report stated: “Visibility is good, and local road conditions are not unusually complex or hazardous. In my view, they do not demand more than reasonable care and attention from drivers or pedestrians.
“The proposed digital sign would be seen within an already visually busy environment. In this context, it would not appear intrusive or out of place but would read as a continuation of the established commercial character. As such, it would not present as a sudden or unexpected distraction to passing drivers.”
They also said the board was unlikely to be seen by many southbound drivers as it would be “initially screened” by the totem sign advertising a bakery, sandwich shop, carpet shop and tool store on site as well as vehicles at the petrol pump.
Hall, who visited the forecourt in early June, wrote: “During my visit, its proposed location was frequently partially or fully obscured by parked vehicles, suggesting that for much of the time, its visibility would be limited, thereby reducing its potential to distract passing motorists.”
Five conditions have also been imposed with the permission which sets the minimum display time for each advert as 10 seconds, requires all images to be “entirely static” with no moving images, animation or video and no messaging can be spread across more than one screen image in sequence and the intensity of the illumination will also be controlled.
Wildstone Estates said the board is primarily aimed at users of the petrol station rather than road users and aims to modernise forecourts and “where possible…rationalise and declutter existing advertisements”.
