In a surprising move, Cardiff Council has refused to offer in to demands from humanists to remove its logo from adverts across the town encouraging people to go to church this Easter.
The council’s logo appears on the underside of banners that say “Trust in Jesus, he’s alive, come to church”.
The banners have been hanging from lampposts within the run-up to Easter and are paid-for advertisements by an external party, not the council.
The Wales Humanists group says it has received multiple complaints in regards to the adverts, Wales Online reports.
The humanists claim that the banners go against the council’s “responsibility to stay impartial” and never give the impression that it favours a specific belief or religion over one other.
Wales Humanists wants the council to “address the difficulty with urgency” and review its policy for lamppost promoting.
Cardiff Council has dismissed the fuss and allowed the banners to remain in place. A spokesman for Cardiff Council said that registered charities and businesses were allowed to purchase banner space on council-owned lampposts and that no motion was needed since the adverts are “compliant” with council policy.
“The booking of this promoting space is managed by Bay Media, an external national provider of promoting space, in compliance with the council’s promoting policy,” the spokesman said, in line with Wales Online.
“The Cardiff council logo is placed at the underside of all banner promoting co-ordinated by Bay Media in the town to display that the advert has permission to be on council property.
“It doesn’t indicate any formal partnership or endorsement of the precise content of the advertisements.”
According to social media, the banners were booked by an area Presbyterian pastor and crowdfunded.
The adverts have been met with nice surprise by local Christians.
The Diocese of Llandaff posted on social media, “It’s great to see these banners popping up in Roath. Huge because of everyone who funded them, and to Cardiff Council for allowing them to be put up. What a tremendous solution to share our Good News!”
One dad and governor of a Catholic primary school tweeted, “Couldn’t consider my eyes driving through Cardiff today and seeing official banners from Cardiff Council saying ‘Trust in Jesus – He is alive – Come to church’. We are so back.”
Adverts have been something of a battleground in previous years, with councils typically searching for to remove those displaying Christian messages.
In 2021, Blackpool Borough Council and Blackpool Transport Services were fined £109,000 after removing adverts for a rally by American evangelist Franklin Graham. The adverts, which carried the slogan “Lancashire Festival of Hope with Franklin Graham – Time for Hope”, were removed after complaints from the LGBT community. Imposing the high-quality, a Manchester County Court judge ruled that the council had disregarded “the suitable to freedom of expression”.
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