Appealing an advertisement discontinuance notice

A discontinuance notice is the council's way of removing a sign that already has consent. If your fascia, projecting sign or forecourt board went up under deemed consent, the authority cannot simply prosecute you, so it serves a notice under regulation 8 of the Town and Country Planning (Control of Advertisements) (England) Regulations 2007 requiring the display to stop. A discontinuance notice appeal goes to the Secretary of State, the notice does not bite while the appeal is undetermined, and the grounds are narrower than most occupiers assume.

What a discontinuance notice does

The power applies to an advertisement displayed with deemed consent, meaning one of the classes in the Regulations that permits display without an application. The authority may require discontinuance where it is satisfied that this is necessary to remedy a substantial injury to the amenity of the locality, or to remove a danger to members of the public.

Two words carry the weight. Substantial injury sets a higher bar than ordinary harm, so a sign the officer would have refused on an express consent application is not automatically one that can be removed by notice. And necessary means the notice has to be the proportionate response rather than the first idea.

The notice must specify the advertisement, the reasons, and the date on which it takes effect, which is a period after service. Lodging an appeal before that date suspends it, so diarise the date on the day the notice arrives.

Continuing to display after a notice has taken effect is an offence, and the offence continues day by day, so this is not a notice to ignore while you think about it.

The grounds that actually work on appeal

The Regulations require the authority to exercise its powers in the interests of amenity and public safety, and nothing else. That single sentence defines the battlefield.

Arguments that engage properly with the test:

• The sign causes no substantial injury to amenity, by reference to the character of the locality, the existing pattern of signage, and the sign's size, position, illumination and materials.
• The sign presents no danger, with evidence on sight lines, driver distraction, luminance and the position of traffic signals or signs.
• Any injury could be remedied by something less than discontinuance, such as reduced illumination, a smaller sign or a different position.
• The display does not benefit from deemed consent at all but holds express consent, in which case the notice is the wrong instrument.
• Procedural defect: the notice fails to identify the advertisement, gives no reasons, or was not served on the right persons.

Arguments that will not land: the trading consequences of losing the sign, the cost of the installation, the fact that other businesses have similar signs without complaint, and the length of time the sign has been there. The last one deserves a note. Longevity is relevant to the character of the locality and therefore to amenity, but it is not a defence in itself, and councils do act on signs that have stood for years.

The analysis is much like separating sustainable reasons from unsustainable ones in a refusal, as covered in our note on reading a refusal notice and turning it into a plan.

Deemed consent and how it is withdrawn

Deemed consent is not a licence. It is permission granted by the Regulations for defined classes of display, subject to standard conditions: the sign must be kept clean and tidy and in safe condition, it must not obscure or hinder the interpretation of any traffic sign or signal, it must not endanger road users, and the permission of the owner of the site is needed.

Two mechanisms withdraw it. A discontinuance notice removes it for a specific display. A direction, made in respect of an area or a class, removes it more broadly, and in an area of special control of advertisements the permitted classes are narrower from the outset.

So the first question on receiving a notice is which class your sign relied on, and whether it ever complied with that class and the standard conditions. A sign that exceeded the class limits was never covered by deemed consent, which changes the position entirely: the council could proceed for unauthorised display instead, and the appeal route on that footing is different.

Where removal notices differ from discontinuance notices

Occupiers often receive one and read it as the other. The regimes are distinct.

Check the heading, the statutory reference and the stated appeal route before doing anything else. An appeal lodged with the wrong body is not cured by being lodged in time.

Amenity and public safety in this context

Amenity, in advertisement control, means the character of the locality including the general appearance of its buildings and open spaces, and any features of historic, architectural, cultural or similar interest. In a conservation area or on a listed building the threshold for substantial injury is lower in practice, because the baseline is more sensitive.

Public safety concerns the safe use of any road, railway, waterway, dock, harbour or aerodrome. The arguments that succeed are specific: measured sight lines, luminance figures in candelas per square metre against recognised guidance for the surrounding lighting environment, the position of the sign relative to a junction or signal, and whether it could be mistaken for a traffic sign. Where illumination is the issue, the technical case belongs in a Lighting Assessment rather than a letter.

Highway evidence of this kind is measurable, and the approach is the same as for highway objections generally, as set out in our note on highway safety refusals and the evidence that answers them.

Timescales and the practical sequence

Work to this order.

1. Note the date the notice takes effect, and the appeal deadline, on the day it arrives.
2. Identify which deemed consent class the display relied on, and whether it complied with the class limits and the standard conditions.
3. Photograph the sign in daylight and after dark, with measurements and the context of neighbouring signage in the same street.
4. Obtain luminance figures from the installer where illumination is in issue.
5. Approach the case officer before appealing, because a negotiated replacement is usually faster and less costly than an appeal.
6. If appealing, do so before the effective date, and set the case out against amenity and public safety rather than commercial consequence.
7. If not appealing, remove or alter the sign within the period stated, since the offence runs daily thereafter.

Appeals of this kind are normally determined on written representations, and the evidence is the photographs, the measurements and the comparison with the surrounding street.

Negotiating a replacement sign

In most cases this is the better outcome, and officers are generally willing because it resolves their concern without an appeal.

What tends to be acceptable: a smaller fascia with individual letters rather than an internally illuminated box, halo or trough illumination in place of a bright panel, a reduced luminance at night or a timer switching off outside trading hours, removal of a projecting sign in exchange for keeping the fascia, and a traditional hand-painted or applied sign in a sensitive frontage.

Put the proposal in writing with a drawing and a luminance specification, and ask whether express consent would be granted on that basis. Where the authority agrees, apply for express consent for the replacement and remove the existing display on a defined date. That gives you a consent document with a known expiry rather than reliance on a class you may have misread, and it supports the planning case in a way the officer can record, which is the role of a Planning Statement where one accompanies the application.

Browse the report types to see which supporting documents an express consent application for a sensitive frontage is likely to need.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. Advertisement control carries criminal offences and strict appeal deadlines, so take advice from a qualified professional promptly after receiving any notice rather than relying on this article.