HUNDREDS of events, road side car washes, car boot and Sunday market operators and even village fetes could fall victim to Fenland Council’s toughened enforcement regime.

Council officials will plaster ‘CANCELLED’ notices across offending advertisements and cite the Town and County Planning Action 1990 for doing so.

The council wants to de-clutter the countryside and has approved new policies to control illegal advertising.

“It is a criminal offence to put up advertising signs without planning permission,” Councillor Jan French, Cabinet portfolio member for planning improvements, told councillors.

“If people are putting up signs illegally then we’re going after them.”

Even village fetes could fall foul of enforcement although the council will turn a blind eye providing the signs come down within a fortnight of the event taking place.

A report approved by councillors reminds anyone displaying an advertisement without consent that it is a criminal offence liable to a maximum �2,500 fine but with daily penalties for non compliance.

“Any form of fly posting –displaying an advertisement without consent- is an offence,” said the report. If the council decides to act it must give “48 hours before obliteration or removal takes place.”

The council says it will also look to recover costs of �125 if they have to step in and remove offending advertisements themselves.

Other enforcement actions agreed by the council include breach of planning including unauthorised demolitions, lack of consent for work on listed buildings, unauthorised developments, and failure to comply with conditions such as protecting trees and hedgerows.

The council says its response will “strive to strike an acceptable balance between protecting the amenity of the citizens of Fenland and others interests of acknowledged importance and allowing development to take place”

But the council promised they will not take “disproportionate action” but only act when it “expedient and necessary” to do so.