Farmer outwits mayor with advertising trick
A farmer in Berkelland, Gelderland had a shed built on his land along the new N18 motorway to use as a shed, reduce traffic noise and make some extra cash. The idea was to rent space on the side of his shed to advertisers.
However, once the space was rented, which happened fairly quickly, the mayor went over to the farmer and explained that he was not allowed by local law to have advertising on his shed that was unrelated to his business. The farmer removed the advertising banner, but used several Dutch expressions to say that he wasn’t going to take it lying down.
The farmer then parked a trailer next to his shed and put advertising there. He is allowed to put adverts on a trailer by law, and it would be weird if he couldn’t. The municipality checked their facts and indeed, the farmer can go this route. “There are tons of trucks driving around with adverts on them, you’re not going to pull them all from the road?” reasoned the farmer. Since the trailer is ‘rolling stock’ with wheels, it can have advertising that is non-related to the business of the farmer.
However, the mayor isn’t quite ready to let it go: if our farmer friend doesn’t move his trailer within a year or takes the wheels off and makes it a more permanent structure, then they’ll be back in a year. Farmer wins for now.
I wonder if he farms any cucumbers, as this is great ‘cucumber news’ (slow news period in the Netherlands).
(Link: ed.nl)
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