London To Ban Adverstencils?

Dan Smyth wrote in to give us some feedback on stencilling. He tell us about London council’s plans to ban the use of stencilling for advertising. He says,

“Personally I quite like the odd bit of stencil graffiti, but as a local government officer also understand the huge cost of graffiti removal (London local gov’s = approx £5M taxpayers’ ££ a year).

London council’s are currently gearing up against flyposting – with actions being taken against some of the bigger records labels and distributers – but to see this new trend of defacing by their advertising companies is a bit of a worry. The odd bit of independant art I like, but I am not sure about this new tactic – if my streets become a board of trivial ‘adverstencils’ I won’t be happy!”