Fulham FC banners installed near a West London park will stay up despite a backlash from outraged locals, after Hammersmith and Fulham Council approved the advertisements.
Council approves 36 advertisements in and around Bishops Park
The banners are among 36 commercial advertisements that have been erected in and around Grade II-listed Bishops Park. The council has already installed 12 non-illuminated double-sided banners on Stevenage Road, which borders the park, including some for Fulham FC. It now plans to put up five more adverts in this location. Eighteen banners have also been placed within Bishops Park itself, many promoting the new Fulham Pier development.
Planning committee approves despite hundreds of objections
On Tuesday (July 7), the Planning and Development Committee approved two planning applications for the advertisements despite receiving 164 objections for Bishops Park and 95 objections for Stevenage Road. Marc Medina, a resident of the Bishops Park area for 30 years, told the committee that the advertisements had changed the character of the green space.
“For 133 years people have come to Bishops Park for its openness, tranquillity, its historic landscape and distinctive civic character. Today for the first time that experience has changed,” he said. “People visiting from either Bishops Road, Stevenage Road or Putney Bridge are immediately, and I do mean immediately, met by commercial advertising that's promoting a single private development. Those advertisements continue throughout the full length of the park.”
Advertisement dimensions and impact assessment
The advertisements inside the park are 1.6 metres high and 0.6 metres wide, while those on Stevenage Road are larger at 2.2 metres high and 0.785 metres wide. A council case officer commented on the first application: “The design, size and siting of the advertisements are considered to be acceptable in visual amenity terms and do not have a detrimental effect on the residential amenities of the occupiers of neighbouring properties, or on highway safety.”
“It is considered that the banner advertisements preserve the character and appearance of the Bishops Park conservation area and the registered historic park and garden and do not cause harm to the settings or significance of adjacent designated and non-designated heritage assets,” the officer added.
