Toll backers warned: take down 'Yes' signs

City chiefs today warned the leaders of the Yes to Edinburgh and Get Edinburgh Moving campaigns they will be billed for the cost of taking down any posters still stuck to lamp-posts at 5pm tomorrow.

The ultimatum comes despite promises by campaigners to remove all of their signs by February 22 - the day the overwhelming "no" vote in the poll was announced.

Critics insisted because the guarantees had not been met, the activists had been guilty of flyposting and called for "Yes" campaign backers to be fined. Under Scottish law, the maximum penalty is 1000 per poster.

But council officials today said no such legal action would be pursued. City development director Andrew Holmes said: "The council is concerned that, as often happens after elections, there are some campaign posters still up.

"If these are not removed by the end of this week, they will be taken down by council staff and we will recover the costs from the organisation concerned."

Officials were unable to estimate how much the bill could run to. Placards were last night still mounted in areas across the city, including the Meadows, the Old Town, the West End and Queensferry Road.

Key figures in the independent Yes to Edinburgh campaign included city council leader Donald Anderson and transport leader Andrew Burns. Deputy council leader Ian Perry also sent a letter to about 3000 Labour Party colleagues in the Capital asking for donations to the group.

In letters dated January 26, city council chief executive Tom Aitchison stressed that "no permission" had been granted to fix placards to lamp-posts and pledged that "all possible action" would be taken to remove them by local authority staff.

Two days later, city finance leader Maureen Child and Green MSP Mark Ballard were photographed putting up the first of 5000 placards bearing slogans such as "Yes to better public transport", "Yes to less pollution" and "Yes to less traffic"

In a U-turn on February 3, Mr Aitchison decided that no enforcement would be taken against any "Yes" campaigners for putting signs up without permission. He later gave special dispensation for both camps to fix signs to lampposts - provided they were all removed by February 22.

After being contacted by the Evening News, city officials announced the new deadline for the removal of the signs. But opponents claimed that was not good enough.

Edinburgh Communities Against Congestion Charging spokeswoman Tina Woolnough said: "It was made perfectly clear that the placards were to be taken down by February 22.

"The council was making up rules as it went along on this issue. They were initially put up illegally and the council didn’t take action at that time.

"The council has to do something about this and take robust action at this point. Yes to Edinburgh promised they would take them down and the council should be pursuing them." Thom McCarthy, who fronted a coalition of small businesses opposed to the road tolls plan, added: "These posters are still up all over the town but the council doesn’t seem bothered."

Tory transport spokesman Allan Jackson also branded the situation "unacceptable". He said: "Many people thought that the signs going up in the first place was wrong but the council swayed and allowed them, so the very least the campaigners can do is take them down. They should have done what political parties do at election times and get them down within a day of the vote ending.

"People turned out in large numbers to reject the congestion charging scheme and the last thing they want now is to be reminded of it by this discredited Yes campaign."

Ray Perman, chairman of the Yes to Edinburgh campaign, described calls to prosecute those responsible for the signs as "nonsense". He added: "The vast majority of the Yes to Edinburgh placards were taken down on the weekend before the referendum.

"There may be a handful left but we are removing them as we spot them. All of them will be removed and recycled.

"This is a complete red herring. There are still placards around the city from the last Scottish Parliament elections from more than one party."