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They waited three years, they will wait some more. Landscape resolution comes into force in Kielce

25 of March '25
w skrócie
  1. Reklamoza in Polish cities is an urban planning problem resulting from an excess of chaotic signs and banners in public space.
  2. Landscape resolution is a tool of local governments regulating advertising in cities, already introduced in more than 70 municipalities, including Lodz, Krakow and Gdansk.
  3. Kielce is implementing the Landscape Resolution, which will take full effect on May 13, 2025, after a record-long preparatory period.
  4. An inventory of advertisements in Kielce covered 15,000 carriers, and local authorities have prepared a guide to inform entrepreneurs about the new rules.
  5. Entrepreneurs will not pay immediately, but will first receive summonses to remove or adjust ads, and only later will fines be imposed.
  6. For more interesting information, visit the home page of the A&B portal

Advertising is a sore point for many Polish cities. Blotchy signs, colorful banners and large stumbling blocks are an unwanted but still present element of Poland's urban landscape. Advertising is a lever of commerce! - thunder entrepreneurs, who are reproached with unsightly incentives to buy products or use the services offered. However, it turns out that the introduction of a landscape resolution does not have to be the end of the world, as demonstrated by a number of cities that have decided to do so. In the near future , another city - Kielce - will join this still narrow group. Will it affect advertising in the upcoming elections?

The landscape resolution has been a tool used by Polish local governments for almost a decade. The first provincial city to introduce restrictions on the placement of advertising in public space was Łódź, which adopted a landscape resolution back in 2016. Other large cities followed suit, including Krakow, Gdansk, Gdynia, Opole and Poznan. In total, more than 70 municipalities in Poland have already cracked down on disfiguring advertisements. In the near, rather special time, they will be joined by Kielce, as the landscape resolution adopted on April 21, 2022 will become effective as early as May 13 of this year.

From a big cloud a little rain

The adoption of the landscape resolution in Kielce has not been without criticism. In the pages of A&B, Kacper Kepinski described the holes in the law, which is set to take effect in mid-May of this year. Already then, city activists noted that the resolution prepared by the City Council had the longest preparatory period in Poland, and that the zoning defies all logic. Since then, the Landscape Resolution for Kielce has undergone several amendments, but they did not concern the most problematic issues in terms of its effectiveness, but rather issues concerning compensation for advertising agencies, which were brought to the attention of the Constitutional Court and, later, the Regional Administrative Court.

Kielce scans ads

However, the Kielce local government has taken several measures to help entrepreneurs get through the transition period, which is about to end. As recently as May 2023, 15,000 advertisements in the city were scanned and inventoried, while in September of the same year a guide to advertising was made available, aimed at explaining the most important restrictions introduced by the resolution in an accessible way.

Entrepreneurs won't pay right away

During a press conference held on March 24 of this year, representatives of Kielce local government, including Kielce Mayor Agata Wojda, Deputy Mayor Lukasz Syska and Deputy Director of the Investment and Architecture Department Dominik Kwietniewski, presented the upcoming activities related to the entry into full force of the resolution. First, after the end of the preparatory period, which will take place on May 13, 2025, entrepreneurs using advertisements that violate the provisions of the landscape resolution will receive summonses with orders to dismantle or adjust the media. Only after a certain period of time will financial penalties of up to several thousand zlotys per month begin to accrue. A document illustrating the best examples of landscape transformation in Polish cities that have adopted a similar resolution was also presented.

A series of meetings was also announced to help entrepreneurs and advertising agencies adjust to the changes - the first of these meetings has already taken place.

Landscape resolution in Kielce and the election campaign

The time when the landscape resolution for Kielce will take full effect is a rather peculiar time, as it coincides with the culmination of the election campaign associated with the upcoming presidential election. Anyone living in Poland knows from experience that during an election campaign the ratio of areas in urban spaces that are covered with stickers, posters and banners skyrockets. "Political advertosis" is not necessarily an unequivocally bad phenomenon, as Wiktor Bochenek wrote about in the pages of A&B, but it does require committees to comply with the Election Law and local standards.

Until recently, the issue of election posters in Kielce was ambiguous - due to a lawsuit pending in the Swietokrzyskie Voivodship Administrative Court, the provision regulating the conditions for posting election ads in Kielce was removed. According to Kielce Electoral, the matter was clarified at a March 24 conference by Kielce Deputy Mayor Lukasz Syska, who said that candidates' materials would be allowed to hang on billboards, buildings under renovation or on fences around construction sites, which are in compliance with the resolution. So there is nothing to count on a dramatic change in this regard. How will the city look when the election ads disappear? This is unknown, as information on potential dates when entrepreneurs will have to remove ads that violate the provisions of the resolution has not been made available. So it may turn out that the three-year preparatory period is only the beginning of a long struggle against advertising chaos in Kielce's public spaces.

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