STMA MUST CONTROL THE ERECTION OF BILLBOARDS (PAGE 29)

Story: Moses Dotsey Aklorbortu, Takoradi

ADVERTISING one’s business is said to be an action of calling the attention of the public to patronise an item or a service.
However, the quest by many businesses to advertise their location and to get people to hear and see them has for sometime now become a hazard in some parts of the Sekondi/Takoradi Metropolis.
Signboards are sited indiscriminately in the metropolis. Safety standards are completely ignored, which are recipes for disasters.
The sad part is that when these disasters strike and the victims are not prominent members of society, little attention is paid to them and such is the situation at Essikado Junction, just after the Railways Park near the Golden Gate of the Western Regional Administration.
At that particular spot, there have been countless numbers of accidents. To avert fatalities, the signboards in that sharp curve should be removed and the giant tree there, whose branches have spread all over the place, should have its branches pruned.
There are signboards belonging to a financial institution and timber companies sited at this junction, which block the view of the motoring public.
Drivers of vehicles travelling from Enyansia to Essipon have no problem with their view and so face no danger until they have to negotiate the curve in order to get to Essikado.
The issue is that siting of billboards in the metropolis must be subjected to vigorous checks before permit is issued to the various agencies to erect them. The rains are here again, the situation last year was terrible and one expected the authorities to do something for a change for the better, but as things stand now billboards are likely to be pulled down by rainstorm as usual.
However, in the face of all these dangers, as soon as the rains are over, the whole problem becomes a thing of the past. The problem of rainstorm pulling down billboards has become an annual ritual in the metropolises of Sekondi-Takoradi, Accra, Kumasi, Tamale and Cape Coast.
Are we waiting until a fatality of a prominent member of society or his relative happens before the problem would be solved?
It is the hope of this writer that those who have their signpost at the Essikado Junction, just after the Railways Park near the Golden Gate in Sekondi, would reposition them to ensure clear view for motorists and to save the lives of poor pedestrians.
Also, if it is the duty of the Assembly or the Department of Parks and Garden, then they should, as a matter of urgency, put a stop to the countless accidents at that junction by instituting appropriate measures.