Bid to clear roads of dangerous billboards
Deputy Environment and Public Works Minister Themistoklis Xanthopoulos yesterday called for the enforcement of Council of State rulings ordering the removal of roadside billboards that have been blamed for countless road fatalities in Attica in recent years. Addressing a cross-party committee on road safety, Xanthopoulos said that a series of rulings by the country’s highest administrative court were the «perfect solution» for the scourge of billboards. Enforcing the rulings would allow authorities «to clean up Greece once and for all,» he said. Deputy Transport Minister Michalis Bekiris said his ministry would issue a circular to local authorities with a list of road arteries where the installation of billboards will be forbidden. In 2007 alone, 300 road accidents involving advertising billboards were recorded, eight of which were fatal.
