Hounslow Council Statutory Notice Spending Tops £100,000

Cost to the borough increased by 42% last year

The newspaper in which notices are placed are deposited at drop off points across the borough

January 5, 2025

Hounslow Council is looking for ways to reduce spending on public notices as part of a range of measures to reduce its budget deficit by £12 million.

The cost of these notices, which are placed in printed newspapers, soared in the last financial year (2023/24) by 42% to £108,395.

A report presented this December to the council outlining possible cuts include a reduction of £20,000 to this expense similar to the amount the council hopes to save by ending the policy of replacing felled trees.

About three quarters of the spending last year was on traffic orders, with the balance made up by statutory consultation materials and other kinds of public notices.

Nearly £100,000 out of the £108,395 was spent with PWR Media which is the publisher of the Hounslow Herald.

According to a source at the council, the cost for statutory notices starts at around £400 and can be more depending on the size of the advertisement.

The legislation governing traffic orders and other public notices states that they must be placed in a ‘newspaper in general circulation’. The Hounslow Herald is from time to time deposited at various drop off points throughout the borough and the council deems this meets the requirement of the law.

The applicant rather than the council pays the cost of planning notices and premises licence applications, and it is understood that most of these are placed in the Hounslow Herald. When applicants have tried to use sites like this one for licensing notices, the licensing department at Hounslow has upheld objections on the basis that a notice placed online is not valid. This is despite advice issued by the Home Office during the pandemic that online media could be used if the reach of print media was considered to be inadequate. The requirement to use a printed newspaper significantly increases cost of doing business in the borough.

A spokesperson for Hounslow Council said, “Traffic notices are statutory requirements issued for a range of reasons e.g. temporary road closures to facilitate works done by utility companies, highway improvement schemes, traffic network management, events affecting public right-of-way etc. Any annual increase or decrease in the number of 'notices' issued depends upon the activities that take place during the year. The data shows a higher level of activities in the year 2023-24 as compared to 2022-23.

“As these are statutory notices, we cannot ‘limit’ how many adverts we take out. However, as part of the budget proposals, we are looking to test the market to achieve value for money.

“That said, this is still a budget saving proposal and nothing has been confirmed yet.”