Peter Harvey says the community he calls home is being defaced by flyers.
The longtime Langley City resident believes that the advertisements and posters found on light standards and wooden power poles around the community are not only unsightly, but are also causing property damage.
“People are upset when they see that kind of garbage,” he said, calling businesses “brazen to do this.”
“I want them taken down,” Harvey said.
Once removed from the light standards, the flyers often take a strip of black paint with them, Harvey pointed out.
He says, “our tax dollars” go into replacing the stripped paint.
“If it’s a homeless person or a kid who had done it, we’d be upset,” Harvey said. “But when it’s a business advertisement, that’s a direct slap to the face of the City. I am proud of Langley City. By doing this, they’re saying ‘I don’t give a damn about you guys.'”
Under section 9G of the the City’s Community Standards Bylaw No. 2487, it notes, that no person will “stamp, paint, post, affix or otherwise place any placard, bill, poster, notice or advertisement in any public place without the written permission of the City, except such formal notices as are required to be posted to inform the public on any matter pertaining to elections held in the City pursuant to the Federal Election Act, the Provincial Elections Act, or the Local Government Act.”
The City’s manager of bylaw enforcement Dave Selvage said there is a $100 fine per incident.
Selvage said the company that is affixing advertisements locally has been issued a warning and is being asked to take the flyers down.
“What we want them to do is comply and make sure they’re not unsightly,” Selvage said. “It’s not something we want to see.”
