U-turn over racy taxi advert

Council chiefs have done a u-turn over a taxi advert initially dubbed too raunchy for Bath.

Licensing officials at the Guildhall turned down an approach from an media agency which wanted to plaster pictures of a bikini-clad woman and a man in his swimming trunks over local taxis.

The images advertise a firm which markets second homes as holiday accommodation.

Now, after holidaylettings.co.uk revealed that its plan had been rejected, Bath and North East Somerset Council has had a change of heart.

The firm's agency, Transport Media, had been sent an email from senior licensing officer John Dowding saying: "Having discussed the proposed artwork with my manager, it has been decided that the proposal is inappropriate for licensed vehicles in B&NES and as such permission is denied."

But yesterday, a spokesman for the authority said: "After an internal review, Bath and North East Somerset Council has agreed that the advertising covers the bare essentials of our licensing requirements. The council has written to holidaylettings.co.uk to give consent for their taxi advertising scheme."

The advertising campaign had proved successful in London and the firm is now rolling it out nationwide to popular city break destinations such as Bath.

Holidaylettings.co.uk said the council had initially suggested covering the man and woman's bodies with t-shirts and shorts.

Now the adverts should be seen later this month, with other cities such as Cardiff, Edinburgh and Oxford included in the campaign.

The campaign aims to market the firm as a source of thousands of holiday home accommodation options and uses the phrase 'escape the rat race'.

The firm, which advertises 31,000 holiday homes in 110 countries, says its booking inquiries are up by 30 per cent this year as people opt for self-catering accommodation to save money.