More than 400 illegal posters removed during Wakefield by-election

The figures were revealed during Wakefield Question Time, where residents get the opportunity to put questions to the council’s key decision makers live on Facebook.

One wrote resident asked: “Now the election is over, are all the parties going to go around Wakefield and remove all the endless posters on every lamppost as it makes the city look a mess.”

In reply, Councillor Maureen Cummins, Wakefield Council’s Cabinet member for communities, poverty and health, said: “I know that posters on lampposts and a variety of areas do make the city look a bit jaded.

“But I can assure you that over the election campaign we have already removed over 400 posters that were illegally posted on columns that they should not have been posted on. We will continue to do that.”

Coun Cummings said candidates have been warned that they face fines of £40 per poster if they are not removed within ten days of the election.

She added: “All the candidates are on warnings that if they are not taken down by the ten-day period then we will take them down and we will fine them.”

A total of 15 candidates stood at the by-election, which was won by Labour’s Simon Lightwood on Thursday June 23.