Flyposting really isn't flavour of the month. Now Westminster Council are following their Camden Council counterparts in a bid to utilise the Anti Social Behaviour Order system to stop flyposting, by threatening the bosses of media and entertainment companies with all sorts of nasty consequences if they do not pledge to stop pasting up paper on the walls of central London.
MTV UK, Dennis Publishing, The Mean Fiddler Group and most of the record companies are being targeted by the campaign. Bosses of those firms have been sent 'commitment to good behaviour' (ie 'commitment to not fly post') cards which, so the council says, must be returned otherwise the local authority will start proceedings against them on the grounds of criminal damage.
A spokesman for the council explained yesterday: "We are serious about legal action, but we are hoping this will be enough to persuade them to stop. If it means going that far we will, but we hope it won't come to that."
Keen to show they are serious but not dull the council have also launched a colourful website for their anti-flyposting campaign at http://www.streetbling.co.uk
All eyes are now on Camden Council and BMG. Unlike Sony, BMG have not committed to stop flyposting despite being threatened with anti-social behaviour charges. If that case goes to court it will properly test Camden and Westminster's use of ASBO's to tackle the flyposting issue - and legal opinion is pretty much split as to which way the courts would side. Presumably everyone else will try to procrastinate making any commitment one way or the other until the whole thing is tested in court.