Parliamentary candidate told to remove large helium balloon

Conservative candidate for Edmonton, Andrew Charalambous, has run into trouble with the law after tethering a large advertising helium balloon to the grounds of his office and also placing advertising hordings outside it (see photo in the Enfield Independent’s story).

Such actions normally require planning permission and although there is a special exemption for the period of an election campaign, that exemption has not yet come in to play for the general election. Despite this, Andrew Charalambous has been unapologetic, defending to the media his use balloons and posters as a matter of freedom of speech.

However, seeing how countries which much more relaxed rules on the display of advertisements often see their communities blighted by over-advertising, I’d say the laws actually work pretty well here. There are good grounds for making an allowance to let people put up garden posters during an election campaign, but that shouldn’t be extended to claim that politicians should just be exempt from planning rules.

Under the Town and CountryPlanning (Control of Advertisements) (England) Regulations 2007, advertisements which would normally require planning permission can be put up for a pending election and must be removed within 14 days of polling day. However, as the general election is not on a fixed date and has not yet been called, it is not a “pending” election for the purposes of this law.

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9 Comments

  • Given it is the ‘long campaign’surely the period of an election should have started.

  • finbarr murrihy 8th Feb '10 - 10:30am

    Cameron’s face is on billboards all over the UK.

    Labour’s DirectGov campaign is a pretty shameless act of self promotion on the public purse.

    It’s a bit petty from the local Labour lot, this guys seems to care about his area and been done on a technicality.

  • Presumably this triggers his election expenses for the constituency as far as expense limits are concerned?

  • Helen Duffett 26th Feb '10 - 6:21am

    I took a snap of the balloon before it was taken down:
    Pie in the sky - Tory blimp spotted over Edmonton

  • Being in a Greek household Andrew has thrown leaflet after leaflet through the door, as well as free copies of the local right wing Greek paper Eleftheria. All on glossy card, and saying just the ‘right thing’. We kept thinking about the environment. We were getting four or five copies of each glossy card. The great irony being he is something to do with friends of the Earth.

    They keep asking “250,000 Greeks in London and no MP of our own … why?” (it rhymes in Greek, which is kind of cute). And I keep thinking … “errr because you belong to the wrong bloody party!” I wonder what the numerous Turkish or indeed all the other non-Greeks in Edmonton would make of those leaflets.

    Then he tries to play the religious card. Sending out glossy cards with Orthodox icons of the Virgin Mary on one side, and his mug on the other. Given his likeness to Shrek the juxtaposition could not be more incongruous. It also backfired, because lots of little old ladies were complaining that these icons were being thrown on the floor to be trod on! That’s the sort of thing the enemies of the Orthodox Church used to do.

    He even has an article in the above mentioned Greek newspaper about Easter in Jerusalem, most of which seems to be culled from wikipedia along with the American spelling!

    Then he looked decidedly uncomfortable with the Greek Church over Easter. Andy Love was much more relaxed on Good Friday than Andrew Charalambous. Then on Easter night as soon as the choir started singing “Let God arise and let his enemies be scattered…” Andrew left, not staying for the communion service.

    But then it doesn’t seem like he has many real links with the Orthodox Church. The Evening Standard describes him as a tantric master, and he has links with something that looks like a masonic lodge The little old ladies at Church would be scandalised if they knew.

    I stopped voting Labour after the Iraq invasion, in line with my pacifist convictions. I chose to vote Liberal, even though in Edmonton it is a two horse race. This time I reconsider because I don’t want to risk this guy getting in – giving votes to Liberals (although I’ve voted Liberal the last two elections) carries a risk that this guy could get in. I’ll vote for Andy Love, because I do not want someone playing a ‘race’ card to insult my intelligence, first by suggesting I should vote for him on the basis of ethnic background, and secondly, pretending to be a faithful Orthodox Christian (I’m not saying he doesn’t believe in God) but masonry, disrespect for icons and the practices of Eastern religions like tantra are opposed by that Church.

    I’m urging every Greek in Edmonton to do the same …

  • Sally Beggs 26th Apr '10 - 2:28pm

    Andy Love has been an outstanding MP and the electorate is not about to trade him in for Charalambous, who is a proven liar – see the New Statesman expose of his vile crime ‘dripping dagger’ leaflet, in which he dishonestly manipulates crime statistics.

    This ‘man of the people’ Charalambous put one of his many glossy leaflets through my door in January, urging me to contact him, as he is available 24 hours per day. So I did. I sent him a message via Facebook. 3 months later I still wait for a reply. So I confronted him about this at a recent election question and answer forum. At first he played the buffoon, stating he hadn’t seen the message and wasn’t very good at that stuff. When I continued to challenge him, he turned and walked away, dismissing me with a wave of his hand.

    Charalambous is a shameless publicity seeker. I do not believe a word of his ‘commitment’ to the environment. Check out the limos, the flights to his ‘eco-disco’ in Ibiza, and the vast amounts of leaflets littering the pavement and squandering the lives of trees.

    I’d rather vote for Shrek.

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