You may be aware that roundabout advertising has been developed as an ‘in-house’ commercial scheme to generate revenue to reinvest into the maintenance of the roundabouts and other highways assets (please see attached). Currently the focus is primarily on roundabouts but in time this may be extended to include advertising on bus stops, fleet vehicles and where possible some signs positioned on grass verges (subject to safety and planning permission).
I’m aware of the In Bloom initiatives across many of our parishes and towns and this scheme shouldn’t necessarily impact those displays which are occupying parks and open spaces, or for example, floral displays in hanging baskets or attached to the rails dividing some of the carriageways etc. The Council will continue to permit the parish and town councils to beautify their roundabouts at their own cost if they wish, though going forward the advertising signs occupying the roundabouts will be solely those arranged and managed under the in-house scheme and the revenue generated ring-fenced for maintenance. The principle behind the in-house scheme was not only to generate some much-needed revenue, but also to harmonise our approach to roundabout advertising and to regulate the process. We want to ensure that all signs occupying roundabouts are consistent in style and design so that they can be easily identified from unauthorised/fly advertising, and that they have met the strict safety audit criteria and have planning consent in place.
To date, we have over 30 roundabouts available for advertising and I’m in the process of submitting planning applications for all roundabouts which were previously maintained by districts and intend to offer first refusal to those businesses which have historically occupied any of these roundabouts. If you are aware of local business that this may apply to, please encourage them to get in touch at advertise@somerset.gov.uk Should they decide that they don’t want to join the new scheme, the roundabouts will be made available for booking on our website. Old signs or installations referencing or featuring business names will need to be removed before the new signs are installed and this will be discussed on a site-by-site basis with each authorised/existing occupant – most are small signs but there are of course a few larger structures on roundabouts dotted around the county which will probably take longer to arrange.
I had intended to make direct contact with those businesses with existing sponsorship signs still in place, but it seems that there are only a few around the county occupying a roundabout under a legitimate agreement (albeit due to expire soon) or the local councils informed me that their agreements had lapsed many years ago, and so it’s been quite challenging trying to establish how/when all others came to occupy the sites and if they were ever part of a sponsorship scheme. Many businesses contacted have not responded and, on that basis, next steps are to share this update with you the parish and town councils, in advance of the planning applications consultation stage, so that everyone is aware that the scheme will now include all roundabouts owned by Somerset Council.
I have attached documents and images which will provide further information but please let me know if you have any further queries or would like to share information relating to any existing agreements you have remaining and I will get back to you asap. In the meantime, you can also visit www.somerset.gov.uk/advertise for more details.
Kind Regards
Lucille Simms
Principal Commercial Officer – Highways & Transport
Somerset Council
If you would like to advertise on any of our roundabouts, please visit: