One of the issues that the Liberal Democrat group on the council raised as part of their alternative budget proposals was the introduction of advertising on public spaces, including roundabouts and litter bins.fficeffice" />

I’m torn between the desire to raise revenue from other sources than the Council Tax and the feeling that the levels of advertising we have around us has reached saturation point.

The amount of money that might come our way in the short term is very small, the word our officers used to me was “marginal”.

However, I’ve recently seen the way that it is done in Bromley and in ffice:smarttags" />Aberdeen and on the roundabouts the adverts are small and clearly being used by local firms rather than multiples and the “dark forces of international capital”.

I’d be grateful for any thoughts you may have on this.

(As a wholly political aside, for those of you who don’t keep up with Lewisham’s budget setting debates, I point out the level of ambition of the Lib Dems.  The Council’s budget is over £300 million, and the Liberal’s put in a cost neutral alternative budget with changes to ours of only £120 thousand.  Steve Bullock, the Mayor has agreed to look into all the expenditure proposals and if they are sensible we’ll adopt them in year.  I’m afraid not all the savings proposals were as sensible as this example, there was the usual opposition ploy of calling for less money to be spent on communicating with the public, and a rather philistine attack on public art.)