Main road leading into Benidorm with illegal billboards |
The main access roads into Benidorm are littered with billboards displaying a variety of company brands and products - but many of these have been put up without permission. You can identify the illegal ones as they have metal poles for the supports - often rusty.
The legal ones, which are managed by the company "Impursa" have a single white support with an Impursa sign on it and a "Benidorm" logo at the top.
Illegal billboards appear on waste ground anywhere |
Literally for any building works you want doing to your house here in Spain you have to apply for a licence - and licence equals money. Lo and behold anyone that does any sort of renovation without one - in both La Nucia and Alfaz the man from the Town Hall planning department drives around the urbanisations looking for any evidence of works going on such as a builders van parked outside someones house. They are even known to pop into the local builders merchant and see who is having materials delivered and cross check that they have applied for a licence! If you are caught without one then you are ordered to STOP - the local police are even called and the area is taped off. You will then be fined and forced to apply for a licence before work can commence. This is why you see so many builders working over the weekend when the Town Halls are closed ... they obviously have no licences!
One of the legal billboards on the N332 |
In the light of all the controversy over advertising, the PP has asked the Town Hall to reconsider its proposal to request a change in the Coastal Act to allow advertising to be placed on the beaches. They fear that it may become a sea of illegal billboards as is evident across the town.