Road sign advertising is a great way to direct people to public attractions.
We offer 2 types of advertising signs for businesses.
Your business can apply for one or both of these, depending on the type of attraction it offers.
Brown tourist signs
Get an idea of which businesses can apply for brown tourist signs.
Attractions and excursion destinations
For example:
historic properties and castles,
museums and galleries,
parks, gardens, nature reserves and natural attractions, and
leisure complexes.
Visitor Facilities
For example:
hotels, bed and breakfasts and youth hostels,
restaurants and pubs,
theatres and concert venues,
retail establishments, and
sports venues.
These lists are not exhaustive. To find out more about eligibility, please contact us.
Private signs
Get an idea of which businesses can apply for private signs.
Establishment destinations
For example:
place name direction signs,
advice centres,
business parks and industrial parks,
shopping centres, and
community nameplates.
This list is not exhaustive. To find out more about eligibility, please contact us.
Costs
There is a non-refundable application fee of £150.
The fee covers your application and the initial checks we need to do for:
- the investigation,
- sign design, and
- getting quotes.
We cannot start processing your application until we receive this payment. After you submit your application, we will email you with details on how to pay the fee.
Costs for road signs can vary depending on your requirements. You can use our form to tell us about your spending budget. This will help our designers understand whether it will cover your requirements.
If we approve your application, we will contact you by email to discuss the full costs for making, designing, installing, and maintaining signs.
Contact us
For more information on whether your business can apply, please get in touch with us.
Email: [email protected]
Apply
Before applying, please make sure you have read the terms and conditions, and have access to any supporting documents that could help us assess your application. These may include:
the proposed location of signs,
Google Maps images,
street view photos showing nearby street or sign columns,
an idea of your sign design, and
images of any existing signs you wish to replace.
The more detail you can provide, the better we can understand and process your request.
Road sign advertising terms and conditions
The proprietors of the tourism enterprise will have to meet the full costs of manufacturing, erecting and maintaining these signs. This can include incorporation of existing direction signs where this is necessary for traffic safety or environmental considerations.
Signing will not be allowed to attractions which do not have sufficient car parking spaces to meet the average daily demand, either:
- within their premises, or
- within 200 metres of the entrance.
Where the parking is not within the control of the proprietors of the attraction, the parking needs of adjacent properties (other businesses or resident parking) will also be taken into consideration.
Where an attraction is within an area, which is itself signed as a tourist attraction, only pedestrian signing will be permitted, unless the attraction has a dedicated car park.
Where 2 or more similar attractions are located within 400 metres of each other, only collective signing will be permitted. It will be for the proprietors of the attractions to agree a joint approach, and funding.
A decision on eligibility for signing will be made within 15 working days of the receipt of an application. A full statement of reasons will be provided. Appeals must be made within 30 working days of the receipt of the refusal and must contain a response to each item raised. The appropriate committee will consider all appeals, within 2 committee cycles. The period required for design, manufacture and erection of the signs will be subject to negotiations with individual applicants.
General notes
The Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions (TSRGD 2016 and subsequent updates) defines a tourist destination as:
'A permanently established attraction or facility (other than a leisure facility) which:
- attracts or is used by visitors to an area,
- is open to the public without prior booking during its normal opening hours, and
- is recognised as a tourist attraction or facility by the appropriate national promoter of tourism'.
In some cases, a destination may meet the required qualifying criteria and still not be provided with signs if there are already too many destinations shown at a junction, or where it is more appropriate to provide directions to adjacent car parks or where the county council considers that signs would be unacceptable on traffic, safety or environmental grounds.
All new direction signs must be bilingual where names in both languages are in common usage, the Welsh language place name being placed above the English language version.
Signs may be provided, even though the qualifying criteria are not met, for traffic management and safety reasons. The size and positioning of signs will conform to the requirements of the current Welsh Office standards.
The highway authority will be responsible for determining the number of signs required in order to maintain continuity between the point at which the attraction or facility is first signed and the attraction or facility itself.
For the M4 Motorway and trunk roads within Cardiff County, the Welsh Office is the highway authority and their current signing standards and policies will apply for all direction signs on these roads. These standards only apply to signs erected upon the public highway.
Signs required for advertising purposes or those that do not conform to the regulations (TSRGD) are governed by the Control of Advertisements regulations and require a form of planning permission. Please contact your local planning authority for information regarding this type of sign.
We will contact you to let you know if your application is successful.
