Hawick shopkeeper “absolutely gutted” after losing signage appeal

Kat Yule has run Kat’s Corner Shop in Myreslaw Green for a number of years, selling a cornucopia of goodies for sweet-toothed people of all ages.

Just over two years ago she expanded to another larger premises in the town’s Gladstone Street, which now sells pick ‘n’ mix and ice creams.

Last year she had installed at the rear of the building an advertising sign promoting the business.

But Kat was issued with an enforcement order by Scottish Borders Council calling for its removal on the grounds it had not been subject to advertisement consent and because it had been fixed to a wall which did not have a shop window, as is required under planning law.

The popular shopkeeper says she was unaware that advertising consent was required.

She appealed the decision to Scottish Government’s Planning Appeals Division on the grounds that there are in fact three windows at the shop premises.

But she has now learned that the appeal has been refused.

Kat said: “I am absolutely gutted. I thought that I was in with a good chance.

“Now I will have to take it down in the new year, although I haven’t been given a deadline.

“The shop is quite difficult to find. I know when we have new Menzies drivers they have difficulty finding it, because of the way it is positioned. Unless you are looking hard you wouldn’t really realise it was there.

“The sign was there to make people aware that we are there.”

Kat had lodged photographs to the appeal of properties in Hawick which have advertising signs without having any windows.

Reporter Rob Huntley paid a site visit to the shop and concluded in his judgement: “The walls fronting Gladstone Street and Myreslaw Green have street-facing display windows. The appeal advertisement is not displayed on any of the street-facing walls but is positioned on the south-east facing wall of the building which runs back at approximately right-angles from Beaconsfield Terrace.

“This wall does not contain a window. The appellant points out that the wall on which the advertisement is displayed contains a glazed door, which gives access to the shop and should therefore be regarded as a shop window.

“Although there is no explicit definition of ‘shop window’ in the regulations, I consider that the term implies more than simply a window in a building used as a shop.

“The presence of a degree of display, related to the goods or services available in or supplied from the shop, is necessary for a window to be encompassed by the term ‘shop window’.

“That content is required to authorise the display of the appeal advertisement and therefore the appeal is dismissed.”