Sandwell Council have approved 24 ft high LED advertising screens aimed at drivers on the M5 and M6, completely ignoring objections from the Central Motorway Policing Group which stated: "For any advert to work it needs to distract drivers' attention to it" and that distractions while driving were one of the four biggest causes of crashes resulting in injury or death.

Astonishingly the Highways Agency raised no objections.

ABD Chairman Brian Gregory commented:

“The plan to put large distracting advertising signs on motorways beggars belief. We call upon the government to step in and ban these signs immediately.

This unfortunately typifies the problem of allowing local authorities to get involved in road safety decisions. Time and again we hear of them ignoring advice from traffic police on vital safety matters such as speed limit setting. Localism has been a disaster for road safety as it places safety decisions in unqualified hands, a dangerous game.”