Party leaders agree to consider banning election campaign posters in Wakefield

The move comes after more than 400 illegally-placed election posters were removed during the recent by-election in the city.

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

Following the event, council Leader Denise Jeffery told a full council meeting of residents’ disapproval of election posters.

The Labour councillor said: “People felt that we put too many posters up during the elections and that they are not good for the environment.

“They wanted to know how soon we were all going to take them down.

“I think at some point it is going to be an issue for all political parties about whether we have posters at all.

“I think the public feel that there are too many of them and we don’t take them down.

“I’m not criticising any particular party.

“It’s just that we all leave them up for far too long and I think it is becoming an issue.

“I think perhaps we could have a debate on that at some time.”

In response, Conservative Group Leader Tony Homewood said: “As someone who has put most of the Conservative ones up for god knows how many general elections, I think people need to understand that the evidence is that those posters don’t work.

“What we ought to do is ban doing it. Stop doing it. It doesn’t work anyway.

“It would save us all a lot of money and we could spend it on something else, because they are not cheap are they?”

During the question time event, one 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 had 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.”