In Irkutsk, active removal of illegal advertising from facades has begun, the building at 12 Chkalov Street was cleared first, and such sites will soon receive special attention. Officials say owners and tenants are warned first, but violations repeat, though illegal advertising in the city has noticeably decreased. They also note that getting a permit for advertising is easy, and the rules for its installation should soon be updated.

The building at 12 Chkalova Street became the first on the list of sites from which illegally placed advertising was removed. It is precisely the advertising on facades that specialists from the outdoor advertising and non-stationary trade department of the Irkutsk city administration promise to pay special attention to in the near future.
As Alexey Evladov, deputy chairman of the economics committee of the Irkutsk city administration, said, the contractor has already had to clear the building on Chkalova Street for the third time. Neither the building owner nor its tenants want to comply with the Russian law “On Advertising,” so the situation repeats itself every time. First, the owners are warned by phone about the need to remove the illegally placed advertising, then a notice of dismantling is sent, and after that contractors go out to remove the advertising.
Nevertheless, the specialists conclude that although illegal advertising remains in the city, there is still less of it. Just a year ago, as many as fifty sidewalk signs were collected at one time on Uritsky Street. Now such rich harvests do not happen; the amount of this kind of advertising has been cut in half.
“It is clear that tenants, of whom there may be many in a building, want to make themselves known,” says Alexey Evladov. “But for this it is enough to make one information stand, designed in a certain style, and obtain permission. Such advertising will not disfigure the appearance of the city, and no one will ever touch it.”
Obtaining permission is quite simple. If potential advertisers have the full set of documents (a sketch, a design for the advertising structure, constituent documents, and an agreement with the owners), permission is issued quickly. The state fee for placing advertising for five years will cost three thousand rubles.
Work on dismantling illegally placed advertising will continue. Changes to the regulations and rules for placing advertising in Irkutsk should help in this good undertaking. The updated rules will come into effect after they are approved by the deputies of the City Duma.
Based on materials from the press service of the Irkutsk city administration