A LABOUR-RUN council has become the latest local authority to consider a ban on placing political campaign posters on its lampposts ahead of the independence referendum.

Renfrewshire Council leader Mark Macmillan and his deputy Michael Holmes have put forward a motion, to be debated by councillors on Thursday, proposing to prohibit display of "electoral or other related campaign publicity" on council property, including "lighting columns, traffic sign poles or street furniture".

Mr Holmes said there were "a number of reasons" for proposing the rule, arguing it would have no impact on voter turnout and could lead to mess, with plastic tags left lying in the street or attached to lampposts.

However SNP group leader Brian Lawson said the proposals were politically motivated, and suspected it had been put forward by Labour to prevent the area becoming swamped with Yes campaign posters in the run-up to September 18.

While several councils have long-standing bans on political messaging on their property, others have only recently changed policy.

A similar rule-change was voted through in North Ayrshire earlier this year, after Labour, Conservative and Independent councillors joined forces to outlaw placing campaign posters on local authority property.

Mr Lawson said: "Locally, Better Together have nobody out on the streets doing anything.

"I suspect this is because they know they have no-one to put their posters up, let alone take them back down again.

"We've got more [volunteers] than we know what to do with."

Mr Lawson said he always took posters and tags down following elections and added: "The occasional plastic tab on a lamppost is not the end of the world."