There’s 99 bus shelters in Tower Hamlets…

John “two jobs” Biggs has taken time out of his busy schedule juggling with two full-time jobs to steer through a new contract for advertising in some of the borough’s bus shelters. Beijing may have nine million bicycles, but Tower Hamlets has 99 bus shelters which are to be improved by the new arrangement.

Responsibility for the provision of bus shelters throughout the borough is shared between the council and Transport for London (TfL). The Council has signed a contract with Clear Channel UK which will see the company install new, more modern bus shelters in 99 locations over the next four months and then maintain and clean the shelters for the next 15 years.

The scheme relies on advertising. The new shelters will include 30 digital screens and many existing advertising spaces will be made into rolling advertising banners, to generate more income. The profits made from the advertising will be shared between the Council (which will spend them on roads and highways) and the company.

Labour’s John Biggs stuck to the detail of what is to be done in his comments about the contact, saying: “We are very pleased to have agreed this contract with Clear Channel as they embark on replacing all 99 bus shelters across the borough over the coming months. The provision of these shelters has been at nil cost to the council and Clear Channel will provide more modern shelters which will have improved seating and lighting.

Cllr Ayas Miah, Cabinet Member for Environment, added: “This contract is great news for the local taxpayer. The profit share arrangement in place means that some of the income generated by advertising on these bus shelters will be reinvested into maintaining the public highway, of benefit to everyone.”

Neither politician commented on whether there will be any restrictions on the adverts which will be displayed, such as not advertising fast food on bus stops near schools.

Justin Cochrane, CEO of Clear Channel UK, was clearly delighted at having won the contract and extolled the joys of Tower Hamlets, saying: “We are delighted that Tower Hamlets shared our vision to offer world-class outdoor advertising in the borough. For advertisers, it offers the opportunity to use state-of-the art digital screens and classic Adshel to reach fantastic audiences in one of the most vibrant boroughs in the capital. For local residents and the council it means a major upgrade to the bus shelters that are cleaned and maintained without cost to the taxpayer.”

All three speakers have stressed the fact that the bus shelter improvement and maintenance will not be paid for by the Council. However, just as there is no such thing as a free lunch, so there is no such thing as a free bus shelter. Advertisers will pass the cost back on to their customers. If the cost had been met out of, say, income tax being passed on to the borough as central government grant, it would have been means tested – people with higher incomes would pay more than people on lower incomes. If the bus shelters advertise the nearest supermarket, however, it is the customers of that supermarket who will pay for their upkeep. The decision to fund cleaning and maintaining of bus shelters could, therefore, see even people who are struggling to survive on welfare benefits having to pay towards the cost of this work.

There has been no announcement on which tenders were not successful. However, this is just the kind of small scale job which could have been awarded to a small company, perhaps a co-operative, based in the borough. A small company of that kind could have obtained advertising from local firms, on an ethical basis, and could have created a number of local unskilled, manual jobs – which the borough needs.

[Adverts]

Who is Clear Channel?
The Council chose Clear Channel after a competitive tendering process. The company says it owns more than 60,000 advertising sites throughout the UK. It also works as an advertising agency – obtaining the adverts to put up on its sites and promote elsewhere.

Today’s Clear Channel UK was born in 1998, when Clear Channel Communications bought up advertising and billboard companies – although it didn’t take up the name Clear Channel UK until 2002. The company has since bought up other companies with experience in advertising and digital advertising and was then itself bought by venture capitalists in 2008. It is responsible for digital advertising screens at bus stops and on telephone boxes, in addition to its static billboard sites.

The parent company of Clear Channel UK is now iHeart Media Inc, a gaint multinational media company based in Texas, USA. It claims to have the largest reach of any radio or TV outlet in the USA, with over a quarter of a billion monthly listeners. iHeart also owns Clear Channel Outdoor, one of the world’s largest outdoor advertising companies, operating in 30 countries in the American continent, Europe and Asia. The Chair and Chief Executive Officer of iHeart Media Inc is Bob Pittman, who was previously CEO of MTV Networks and had a leading role in America Online Inc and AOL Time Warner.

Clear Channel has not always enjoyed good relations with local authorities.
•In May 2007, it was taken to Court by Wandsworth Council after it had used a former advertising site to display adverts but without obtaining new planning permission. The Council was successful and Clear Channel was ordered to pay £13,667 towards the Council’s costs, according to a BBC Report.
•Manchester City Council also took the company to court in 2005, after it tried to contend that an agreement over where it could display adverts amounted to a tenancy: the Court found in favour of the Council.
•Fulham Council was also successful in the Courts in 2009, after Clear Channel tried to use a static advertising site for digital advertising.

The Council has not released the terms of its contract with Clear Channel, and in particular exactly how much money it will receive as a result of the contract. In November 2015, the Information Commissioner ruled against Portsmouth City Council, which had refused to disclose details of its contact with Clear Channel by claiming the information was a “commercial interest” and therefore exempt (the Commissioner disagreed).

Clear Channel UK is a living wage employer. We have asked whether it recognises a trade union for its employees and whether it pays tax in the UK and its spokesperson has responded to our questions with the following answers.

1. Do you recognise a TUC-affiliated trade union or unions which your UK staff can join?
   We recognise a variety of trade unions across the business and were the first UK Out of Home media owner to become a Living Wage employer. We have also given multiple apprenticeships to young people through Route Into Work, and are a Silver Patron of The Prince’s Trust, who we have worked with for over 10 years.
2. Did Clear Channel UK pay tax in the UK last financial year – and, if so, are you able to tell us how much?
   For the last 2 years, we have been investing heavily in building a next-generation Out of Home advertising portfolio, with a focus on digital transformation. This investment contributed to us not making a profit in the last year– thus, we did not pay corporate tax in the UK in the last financial year. Had we made profit, we would absolutely have paid corporate tax.