Isle estate agents Miles & Barr say they have had an ‘amazingly good response’ to their sales boards which are also being used to raise speed awareness on Thanet roads.
The eye-catching for sale/sold boards ask motorists to slow down and have appeared outside properties across Thanet.
A Miles & Barr spokesman said: “In the UK, estate agency boards are seen in towns and villages everywhere, with our own boards in the East Kent area seen in particularly high volumes.
“We realised that not only can our boards promote people’s properties, but at the same time, we also have a great opportunity to use our boards for the good of the community. Given the positioning of boards at the front of houses along roadsides the Speed Awareness Campaign was in our opinion a perfect choice to pursue this.
We have been running our Speed Awareness Campaign for a month now and after an amazingly good response to the 'speed boards' going up in the local area we felt it would be a good time for us to let you know more about the campaign – please read below…https://t.co/yp0AOFRmIe pic.twitter.com/9tKDxkvXRi
— Miles & Barr (@MilesandBarr) May 18, 2018
“The campaign aims to fall in line with our company strapline ‘Valuing People Not Just Property’ – something we feel very passionate about.”
The scheme has been support by Conservative county councillor Emma Dawson who helped with guidance from Kent County Council Highways Department. There are now more than 2,000 boards created by Kremer Signs.
The spokesman added: “We are not acting on behalf of the Highways Department. KCC provided us with one proviso; the boards can only be placed on private property – they cannot be placed directly on a public highway.
“We are also not advertising that certain properties are in dangerous places to live, as our new boards are displayed at every property we are marketing and in all areas, whether that be a through road or a cul-de-sac you’ll see them everywhere!
“We have undertaken this campaign with the best intentions. The boards have proven to be a huge talking point already and if that means it has made someone think about their speed, then we have gone a long way to achieving our aim.”
Cllr Dawson said: “I had a email from Miles and Barr who wanted me to engage with highways to consider their speeding traffic awareness project. After consulting with Kent Highways and the police they gave permission to Miles and Barr for their project.
“Their project consists of promoting speed awareness through their for sale and sold signs. The signs have messages like “ Speeding Kills” or “Slow Down” with speed awareness written onto them.
“I personally feel this is a great project as the boards are everywhere and they create awareness and a constant reminder to motorists.
“Through this, combined with Speed Watch, we are keeping in contact with motorists. The boards are on private property not on the highway and this was the condition set for this project to be given the green light.”
Look out for the New Miles and Barr SPEED BOARDS. Being rolled out across Thanet soon. This innovative idea was proposed by Miles and Barr – i wanted to support this so after consulting Kent Highways and adhering to the consideration by the Police it was given the green light pic.twitter.com/0pa0K7w88E
— KCC Cllr Emma Dawson (@cllr_dawson) April 18, 2018
Road casuality data published by Kent County Council for 2016 (2017 figures available this August) shows Thanet had 437 recorded collisions, five resulted in fatalities, 75 in serious injury and 357 in slight injury.
In Kent as a whole there were 4427 personal injury collisions of which 44 were fatal, 753 were serious and 3630 were slight.
What a publicity campaign drawing attention to the company. This is the company that also encourages people to make higher offers where offers have been accepted. Asking price £320k Accepted £340k but hey make a better offer. And we wonder why its difficult for youngsters to get onto the property ladder.
Exactly. More advertising for unethical practice. On top of that, the size of those boards are heading toward planning permission territory.
I think the boards are brilliant seeing as so many traffic collisions happen. It makes people think when they see the boards. I know I did when I saw one. People die in traffic accidents so it is a great idea to help slow traffic down. People see them when they walk around too.
Well done to Cllr Dawson and Miles and Barr on this great project. Anything that can be done to bring awareness to speeding cars and help to make our roads safer must be applauded. Some of our roads are treated like race tracks.
What a great idea. It will raise awareness even if you get the complainers they obviously are still taking notice. Good for you Miles & Barr something good being done.
They not doing a lot of good. Still speeding around Salisbury Ave Ramsgate just to beat the traffic lights and then doing 40-50mph along Hereson Road.
Estate agent boards are a blight in the same league as fly tipping. They are put up and then left for months after the property has been let or sold until, eventually they fall down. They should be erected under a council permit for a fixed period with planning consent needed and then only one board per property please. What other trade gets away with this level of free and unsightly publicity?