In the run up to the September 2014 Referendum and this year’s General Election Aberdeen’s streets were littered with political and campaign related stickers. The stickers often placed on council property such as bins, signage and lampposts has attracted complaints from local residents who see it as blight on the local environment.
Local Hazlehead/Ashley/Queen’s Cross Councillor Ross Thomson has called for those responsible to be forced to either take the stickers down or be charged the cost for cleaning them off.
Councillor Ross Thomson said:
“The streets in my ward and across the city are littered with political stickers and it is no different to graffiti or vandalism of public property. In the same way you would expect political posters to be removed after an election there should be the same expectation for political stickers.”
“I know that some residents have attempted to remove these stickers themselves, but it can be fairly difficult. Therefore the Council and the police should work together to ensure those responsible are caught and either forced to remove them or are charged in the same way a vandal would be. We need to send a message that this sort of behaviour isn’t acceptable and with elections almost every year now I’m concerned that this will only continue.”
“The referendum and the General election are over. We need to move forward and reflect on the mess these fading and tatty stickers cause when they are put up with great enthusiasm at the time but never taken down creating eyesores on our streets.”