Restoring order in outdoor advertising
(Baonghean) Along the streets of Vinh City, many banners, posters, billboards, and advertisements of all shapes and sizes are hung across the streets, on house walls, tree roots, electric poles... very messy.
Mr. Bui Nam Hau - Head of the Department of Culture and Information of Vinh City said: "The messy situation of outdoor advertising is really a problem. The most common is violations of the form and content of advertising, time and location of advertising. After hanging up, the advertising units "finish the job", they refuse to take it down, leaving it exposed to the rain and sun, causing aesthetic loss. We also cannot handle it because many advertising companies have addresses in Hanoi. There is no budget to clean up "garbage" advertising. In some prime locations, there is a struggle for space to hang advertisements. As soon as one unit's advertisement is hung up, another unit takes it down to hang another. There are many advertising signs that violate traffic safety corridors, but after handling and reminding, everything goes back to the way it was. Some outdoor advertising signs are damaged and severely degraded but are not handled, causing offense to people and visitors, especially tourists. To contribute to the correction of the field of outdoor advertising, the People's Committee of Vinh City has detailed planning on this issue. However, to strictly implement from the advertising licensing stage to management and punishment is not simple".
Advertisements are posted everywhere.
Le Loi Ward is considered to do the best job in inspecting and monitoring the outdoor advertising and propaganda system. According to Mr. Nguyen Xuan Toan - Vice Chairman of Le Loi Ward People's Committee, currently there are 40% of households trading in all kinds of goods, close to Vinh bus station, located on National Highway 1A into the city center, so the system of billboards, boards, and advertising banners are "hung up by each person". The Ward People's Committee has directed relevant departments to deploy a number of synchronous solutions to handle and gradually restore order to outdoor advertising in the ward. That is to promote propaganda on the ward's loudspeaker system, residential areas, especially promoting propaganda by mobile car system once a week.
Every week, the ward's urban inspection team organizes two trips (on Tuesdays and Fridays) to inspect, monitor, and confiscate advertising signs that are placed in the wrong places, causing traffic obstruction and affecting the urban beauty. In 2011, the ward organized 109 trips, confiscating 541 advertising signs of all kinds, administratively handling 139 cases, and collecting a fine of 13,200 thousand VND. In addition, the ward also organized 1,500 business households in the area to sign a commitment not to violate regulations on outdoor advertising and propaganda. If any household or business establishment violates, its evidence will be confiscated, after 1 month it will be handled with an administrative fine, and the business owner must re-sign a commitment not to violate. To create conditions for households and businesses, the ward People's Committee is responsible for providing specific instructions on the necessary procedures for installing and placing advertising signs.
In addition, regularly inspect and monitor the advertising sign system to request removal if it is expired, old, torn and revoke it if it violates regulations. These practical solutions have contributed to significantly reducing advertising violations, especially the phenomenon of advertising on walls, electric poles, trees, etc.
However, during the implementation process, the ward's urban officials also encountered many cases where people deliberately did not understand or deliberately violated many times. Due to the low sanctions for violations (collecting advertising signs, administrative fines of 20-30 thousand VND/time), combined with people's "unwillingness" to comply, the confiscation and punishment were like "kidnapping and abandoning the plate". In the coming time, to overcome this situation, Le Loi ward is currently implementing the plan of Vinh City People's Committee to restore order in advertising (selecting streets to plan a synchronous propaganda and advertising system according to a common model to ensure urban aesthetics, planning to choose Le Loi street to build a model advertising point). Regarding advertising licensing, there must be close coordination from the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism to the city's Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism and to the People's Committees of wards and communes, to avoid cases where the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism issues licenses without the knowledge of the People's Committees of wards and communes (when those advertising signs are hung in the area managed by the ward).
On March 22, 2010, the Provincial People's Committee issued Decision No. 1210/QD.UBND.VX approving the Project on Planning the system of outdoor propaganda and advertising in the province for the period 2010 - 2020 to gradually put the licensing of advertising and management of outdoor propaganda and advertising activities in the province into order, creating a reasonable and healthy advertising environment. For Vinh City in particular, focus on implementing advertising types according to orientation, especially advertising types that have a direct impact on the general landscape, contributing to creating for Vinh City a dynamic image in economic development, culture in communication behavior and modern civilization on all roads and streets.
Thanh Thuy
