Declassified files: Needham's election poster reforms stymied

Almost 30 years ago, direct rule minister Richard Needham wanted Northern Ireland's law brought into line with that of the rest of the UK by requiring those who erected election posters to have the consent of the owner of the site on which the poster was placed.

However, officials did not want to go along with the minister’s suggestion, with the issue rumbling on for months because the minister kept raising it.

An October 1989 memo from the NIO to Stormont’s Department of the Environment (DOE) referred to “Mr Needham’s continuing interest” in the matter.

Three months earlier, Mr Needham had drafted an unusual ministerial letter to newspapers (from the file, it is not clear if it was ever sent) in which he deplored the fact that “many weeks after the elections posters were still stuck about Northern Ireland on gable ends, telegraph poles, electricity boxes and anywhere else that has a flat surface and is in public view”.

He said that “fly-posting by the major political parties is on a different scale to anywhere else in the UK”.

He ended the letter by saying “I wonder if your readers think that we should change the law to allow us to prosecute the agents of the candidates if the posters are not removed within two weeks of election day”.

The issue was raised again in October of that year and then appears to have lain largely dormant until the following February.

A memo from DB McIldoon in the Department of the Environment in February 1990 said that in England most election posters were placed on private property, unlike the situation in Northern Ireland where such posters largely went up on road furniture.

That meant, he said, that “the problem in NI is quite different to that which the GB legislation is trying to cover.

“If we did enact the changes as suggested, the Roads Service, together with the Northern Ireland Electricity, BT and other owners of structures on roads would have to reach agreement with all the political parties including SF on the positioning of posters (assuming that they bothered to apply for permission).

“This would obviously be fraught with political problems.”

He said that Roads Service would allow posters to remain for 14 days after an election and thereafter treat them as flyposting but would immediately remove any posters which were judged to be a safety risk to road users.

Other officials were similarly unenthusiastic. EJ Galway in Roads Service headquarters said that “the proposal is not one in which the Roads Service finds any great merit”.

Seven years ago the UUP MLA Mike Nesbitt, who would go on to lead the party, proposed an even more radical approach – the banning of election posters – but the proposal did not succeed.