An events company promoting a travelling circus in Liverpool has been fined a second time for illegal flyposting across the city. Tony McDonough reports
An events firm from Congleton has been fined for illegal flyposting across Liverpool for the second time this year.
In January Exchange Events was ordered to pay a fine of £1,500 after admitting illegally posting posters for Gandeys travelling circus across Liverpool. Now it has been fined a further £2,000 for the same offence.
In the original offence Exchange Events was found to have plastered dozens of posters and signs across the city last autumn. And in the latest offence it was found to have posted the signs in the same locations.
The company appeared at Liverpool Magistrates Court after evidence was collated by Liverpool Street Scene Services Ltd. This is the entity that delivers refuse services for Liverpool City Council.
Neville Wilson, director of Exchange Events, attended court and entered an immediate guilty plea on behalf of the company. Mr Wilson explained he had missed a period of work after suffering from a period of ill health. This required hospitalisation earlier this year.
He accepted he had not been monitoring matters as closely as he should have been. However, he added that he had already warned his publicity manager not to fly post following January’s hearing.
Ad said he had been given assurances that the posters had been removed. He accepted, by way of his plea, that the posters were not removed and that this was ultimately his responsibility as the director.
Exchange Events Ltd was fined £2,000 under section 224(3) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. The maximum fine of £2,500 was reduced to take account of the early guilty plea and the mitigation provided.
It will also pay a victim surcharge of £190 and a contribution of £140 towards prosecution costs. The company has a total of £2,340 to repay within 28 days.
Cllr Abdul Qadir, Cabinet Member for Neighbourhood Services, said: “Removing flyposting of this magnitude costs time and money that the city council can ill afford.
“There’s no excuse for this type of behaviour and we simply won’t tolerate it. To flypost once is bad, but to do so again just weeks after being fined is outrageous. I hope for their sake there’s no third time for this company, because we’ll prosecute again.”