Because we don't have a Town Crier

Here are signs that can tell me much about politics, power relations, responsibilities, legal duties of many parties, the administrative structures that form our democracy, and something about the way time and intention is marked in an urban setting.

So I'll try and keep this post short.

Here are notices at the meeting point between the Local Council and the public.

These are recognisable notices. They have a standard Council logo, use a sans serif print style, have justified text, uniform paper size, and are uniformly fixed to objects by cable ties. They tell us about impending events of public consequence, such as planning applications, licensing laws, traffic restrictions and so on. The notices are all written solely in English and can contain any mix of text, graphics, and handwriting.

Locally, we see multiple copies of the same signs attached to streetlights or other objects under the management of the Local Council. These signs are frequently tied, just above my head height, to objects along routes where there are many pedestrians, or where pedestrians are likely to physically turn, as at a road crossing or other junction. They are clustered in the area that we could broadly say is the town centre, or the main access routes to and from the centre.

I think we citizens of England and Wales are quite keen on these notices. Perhaps we feel these signs are an important part of communication between the Local Councils and the ordinary people in the streets affected by the decisions of our elected representatives.

Of course it could be argued that any power is really retained by the Council: these notices are in a small typeface and placed locally for a limited time so the authorities can defend themselves against an unpopular decision by declaring 'we told you the way to object'.

But it can also be argued that these signs tell us a part of our democratic structure is working. The people putting up these signs declare what the proposal is, which department they are issued from, information on the means of objections, information about appeals, legal status, and contact details.

For my part, I don't feel these signs show power flowing from top to bottom. Rather, these notices have the status that if we want to complain about anything, or have a say about an  application, then here are the details of where, and when, we can do that.

Indeed, even reading a part of these notices is somehow democratising - regardless of who we are, we have access via our street setting to the meeting rooms of local decision-makers.

We're so keen on public engagement, we even have a website for Public Notices for England and Wales: www.publicnotices.co.uk

Here you can look up the notices in an online world where you may not physically be able to read them on the street. (I guess there is a whole discipline about Language Landscapes Online.)

I'm not saying there is not a degree of cynicism about planning or licencing procedures, but these plastic-covered notices, securely fastened, routinely placed, and promptly removed, are perhaps valued, even if the number of those actually following up the invitation of practical engagement in local planning remains small.