Developers have been accused of ‘littering’ Midlothian with signs left on lampposts long after they are needed.
A meeting of Midlothian Council’s planning committee this week heard calls from one councillor for builders to pay the costs of removing the signs.
Councillors Stephen Curran said the county was covered in signs which seemed to remain in place longer than needed.
He said: “Everywhere we go now we see on our street lights signs for developments.
“Midlothian is becoming littered with these signs on our street lights, is there anything we can do to tidy these up, they sit there forever and a day.”
The council’s head of planning Peter Arnsdorf said the signs were often put up to direct construction traffic to the sites during work but should not be left behind.
He said: “They should be taking them down once sites are concluded and closed so we can take that up with the industry. They are designed to ensure vehicles get there efficiently.”
However Councillor Curran called on the local authority to make sure that if it had to carry out work to remove the signs, those responsible footed the bill.
He added: “If the council is removing them from the lampposts we should be charging the developers for that as well.”
The comments came as the committee was discussing an application from developers of a new business site at Sheriffhall to change conditions to allow it to build a drive-thru coffee shop earlier than initially planned.
The original proposals had included a condition that the drive thru could only be built after all the business units were built. The changes would allow it to be constructed after two-third of the units were completed.
It also changed a condition relating to archaeological digs on the site to recognise the work had been done.
The committee approved the condition changes.
By Marie Sharp Local Democracy Reporter
The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) is a public service news agency. It is funded by the BBC, provided by the local news sector (in Edinburgh that is Reach plc (the publisher behind Edinburgh Live and The Daily Record) and used by many qualifying partners. Local Democracy Reporters cover news about top-tier local authorities and other public service organisations.
