Will Southampton City Council ban agents boards?

Should Southampton City Council look to ban agent’s boards? Well Bath and North East Somerset Council  is attempting to introduce a permanent ban on estate and letting agents’ boards in almost two-thirds of its city’s streets - even though a supposedly temporary ban has actually been in effect since 1989.

The council is now considering a report proposing the ban be made permanent from December 15 on the basis that agents' boards are "detrimental to the visual amenity of the area" visited by some four million tourists annually, bringing £500m-plus to the local economy.

Given the proliferation of smart phones, all loaded with Google maps, most if not all prospective tenants or purchasers can easily find the property they are to view and to a large degree the boards are obsolete. Some agents use them heavily for advertising and you wonder if those agents ever sell or let a property as the boards seem to stay up for an eternity!

I would support a ban, the industry should move on, technology has replaced boards and I feel our city would be all the better for it. We would still be selling and letting properties but without the visual litter that boards bring!

In Bath and NE Somerset a substantial number of agents are believed to be happy with the ban; in addition, some agents have voluntarily restricted their display of boards outside of the regulation 7 area to one-per-street, following complaints about the allegedly-detrimental visual effect of clusters of boards. I feel Southampton City Council should have a serious look at this.