Keir Starmer on the verge of appointing Labour grandee to key post at start of Trump presidency
Councils need stronger powers to block adverts on outdoor billboards that are deemed harmful, the Green party is saying. Carla Denyer, the Green co-leader, championed this issue as a councillor in Bristol but she says, to deal with the problem effectively, councils need stronger powers.
Denyer says she has written to Angela Rayner, the deputy PM and housing secretary, about this issue. Explaining what should change, Denyer says:
It’s very promising to see councils implementing new policies to protect their residents from some of the impacts of consumerism, advertising, greenwashing and injustice. But that’s not enough. National planning laws need to change - they haven’t kept pace and it is clear that local authorities and communities need more power to object to harmful ads.
We need updated planning regulations that properly control billboards, with local councils able to refuse on a range of grounds such as climate, nature, public health, light pollution, and the impact on local businesses.
It is no anomaly that Mandelson was a shoo-in for this job earlier in the autumn, till he remarked that maybe Starmer should use Farage’s good offices to build a relationship with Trump. According to senior diplomats, that public suggestion did not endear himself to Starmer and almost cost Mandelson the keys to the UK’s magnificent DC diplomatic residence.
But Starmer, as is becoming his habit, has made a bold call in appointing him. Whether it is the taxes he chooses to impose or the money he chooses to withhold from the vulnerable, the PM is not shying away from decisions that are neither populist or popular.
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