Well, we said all eyes in the ongoing 'Camden versus the evil of flyposting' court case were now on Diabolical Liberties chief
Tim Horrox, and this morning all ears are on Mr Horrox as he releases a lengthy statement, for the first time, about the whole thing.
As previously reported, again and again and again, Camden Council last year led a new initiative to use anti-social behaviour legislation to tackle the ongoing issue of flyposting which, for years, local authorities had failed to combat because there were so many loopholes in the laws that governed it. The Council proposed issuing anti-social behaviour orders against anyone linked to a flyposting campaign, which meant if marketing execs coordinated some flyposting (even if they didn't flypost themselves)
they were liable to be automatically fined or even jailed. Most marketing execs quickly confirmed they wouldn't be funding any flyposting activity in the future,especially in North London.
However
Diabolical Liberties, the ambient marketing agency who coordinate many fly posting campaigns, refused to make any such commitment, arguing that because they had made moves to regulate flyposting in North London - moves that the agency claimed Camden Council had recently rejected without consideration - they felt they were behaving in a very sociable way and, therefore no ASBOs should or could be issued against them.
The courts initially sided with the council issuing temporary ASBOs preventing four Diabolical Liberties employees, including MD
Tim Horrox, from being involved in flyposting. Three of those were dropped last week because those people were no longer employed by the company (or, in one case, by the bit of the company involved in flyposting) which left just Horrox as the Council's target.
They wanted a permanent ASBO issued against the marketing chief.
In the end both sides were able to claim victories. The court did issue a permanent ASBO preventing Horrox from being involved in campaigns that paste flyposts on specific buildings in the
Camden area. However, Horrox claims he would have been willing to make that commitment without any legal action (in fact, he says he already had). Diabolical Liberties also point out the courts refused the council's requests to make teh ASBO cover any flyposting anywhere in the country - the ASBO that was issued, the agency say, doesn't even prevent flyposting across the whole of the London borough.
Horrox's full response to the court case is published at the bottom of today's Daily. What the latest ruling means for the future of flyposting in North London, and elsewhere, and whether those music and media companies who dropped flyposting as a marketing tool last year will start to use it again, albeit in a more regulated fashion, remains to be seen.