Purpose

With the number of housing developments that
are taking place within the city it is imperative we have all the
tools available to ensure that we manage our assets and keep the
street clear of clutter.
Whilst the benefit of the signs to the developer are easy to see,
for the council these signs represent additional untidy clutter and
therefore they require managing to ensure that the signs are not to
big or fitted too close to the road and are removed once the
development is completed at the cost of the developer.

Content

Following discussions with Rotherham Borough
Council, along with recent requests for commercialisation ideas to
bring revenue into the Council and the need to manage the
increasing number of development signs on the network, the Council
wants to implement a permit application system for developers to
apply to the Council for approval of development signage. Approval
for new development signage has previously been given free of
charge. Rotherham Borough Council current charge for these
approvals and the Council wishes to align to the charge rates
implemented by Rotherham Borough Council. The Council will charge
£450 per annum (or part thereof) for approvals for new
development signage
1. Development signage are governed using the Highways Act 1980 and
Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions (TSRDG) and as
such require to be managed as an organisation.
2. As the Council has a duty to manage these development signs in
line with TSRDG, regulations it is acceptable to introduce a charge
to cover the expense of managing the regulations.
3. Having liaised with Rotherham Borough Council, who have already
successfully implemented a permit scheme for developer’s
signs, it was decided to align our costing structure with
Rotherham’s as developers are already used to this amount of
charge.
4. Within the Street Lighting Team we have technicians who can
manage this scheme within their roles.
5. Fitting of signage to our assets may reduce the life of the
assets, the fees recouped could be used to assist replacing.
2023 Update
Following consultation with our Enforcement colleagues the
developer signage policy has been reviewed to include some
additional requirements to assist with enforcement. Planning
considerations have been added to allow enforcement to be able to
manage the breaches and insist on removal of unauthorised signage.
Breaches in these standards could increase revenue for the
enforcement team. Additionally in line with the 2019 existing
policy the charges have been raised to £495 per application
this is the first increase since 2019 and further improves revenue
from this enforcement. The increase is 10% which is below the
inflation rates across the 4 years since being initially set. It
also takes into account the increased costs of managing and
enforcing this policy.