LIVE ISSUE/COUNTRYSIDE POSTER CAMPAIGN.(Brief Article)

Ads that seek to protect the countryside have confused poster firms.

Are you sitting comfortably? Then let us begin. Here is a Halloween mystery story.

It's not about ghosts or ghoulies. Just a charity, its agency, a mysterious media independent, some poster companies and an advertising ban that's as difficult to pin down as the fruit in an apple-bob-bing contest.

Did the ban ever exist? Yes, the Council for the Protection of Rural England claims, which alleges that its campaign opposing Government plans to allow more billboards in rural areas has been stymied. No, say the poster companies that the CPRE accuses of censorship over their alleged refusal to carry the ads (Campaign, last week).

The poster companies named by the CPRE on Monday continue to insist they have no knowledge of such a ban. In fact, Francis Goodwin, the joint managing director for sales and marketing at Maiden Outdoor, is adamant that nobody at the company has spoken to a CPRE representative and that Maiden would be happy to put the advertising on its sites.

But let's begin at the beginning. The CPRE initially identified the offending companies as JCDecaux, its Mills & Allen subsidiary, Maiden Outdoor and Freight Media, a small operation specialising in bus-side and lorry advertising.

Tony Burton, the CPRE's assistant director, denounced the companies as having stepped on a slippery slope by refusing its ads and intimated that his organisation might take legal advice about whether their "ban" was lawful.