TWO-AND-A-HALF thousand pound fines now await people humping sandwich boards up and down West End shopping streets.
Popular on LondonNet
Westminster Council is to introduce the fines on the basis that “these cheap and tatty signs have no part” of the West End’s future.
“Visitors expect and enjoy the buzz of the busy streets around Oxford Street and Covent Garden,” said Councillor Daniel Astaire, “but they do not want to fight their way past these signs cluttering up the pavement or see them disfiguring a beautiful conservation area.”
Westminster is the first council in the country to bring in the tough measures against sandwich board carriers, following a recent change in the law giving councils control over policing mobile as well as static signs.
Critics argue that the sandwich board carriers add a bit of colour to our streets, with classic messages like “The End of the World is Nigh” competing for pavement space with the latest amazing sale of top-brand-golf equipment.