Agency’s signboard campaign in Leeds sparks protests from rivals
HOP's prize draw 'golden board' wheeze leads to a stern call from local planning department after tip-off from unhappy local property firms.
Estate agents in Leeds have erupted in protest after a local firm launched an unusual campaign to get its signboards noticed within the city.
As we reported yesterday, estate agency HOP recently put up some 20 ‘golden ticket’ signboards in around Leeds which, if members of the public photographed themselves next to the boards and posted the image via social media, were then entered into a prize draw for a £2,000 holiday.
HOP will also plant 400 trees in the Yorkshire countryside.
But local agent Cynthia Heywood took a dim view of the campaign and took to Facebook, complaining that “this unscrupulous company… are putting up these advertising boards without permission all over Leeds and will not take them down when requested”.
Other agents then commented on her original post highlighting how the Town & Country Planning Act, which stipulates how large boards can be, where they can be placed and what they can say on them. Government guidance on this is available online.
Boards
Other agents accused HOP of erecting boards on the outside walls of properties they had not been instructed on, or on grass verges.
Heywood has now contacted Leeds City Council’s planning department to highlight the incorrect use of the boards, and one of its enforcement technicians has now replied to her, revealing that he had spoken to HOP’s founder Luke Gidney (pictured).
He has now agreed to take the boards down “within the next two or three weeks” and that if they do not they “then leave themselves open to legal proceeding being taken”.
The Neg has approached HOP for comment.
Good idea this…