THERE is growing concern in Cheshire about mobile adverts alongside major roads and motorways.

They are not only eyesores but, if they succeed in catching the eye, safety hazards too. Many people think they don't need planning permission because they're on wheels, but this isn't true. The problem is really a chronically low level of enforcement of planning controls.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) is planning a campaign aimed at getting the Government, when the regulations come up for review later this year, to tighten them up. We'll also be pressing local planning authorities to take action against unauthorised mobile adverts.

Meanwhile, volunteers are needed to document and photograph the mobile adverts along Cheshire's main roads and motorways. Not an arduous job - it just needs a few teams of two to drive along making notes and taking photographs (observing the Highway Code of course).

If readers would like to help with this, please call CPRE's office in Middlewich on 01606 835046.

RICHARD BASS

Chairman, CPRE Cheshire Branch