Cross checks of road safety data will be made in future by Cheshire East Council when it considers filming requests.
This week, a no-win no fee legal firm pulled an advertisement which showed a “car accident” that had been staged at The Village in Astbury – close to where Congleton teenager Georgia Ogden was killed in June 2020.
Georgia was a rear seat passenger in a car that was in collision with a truck at the junction of the A34 with Peel Lane. A bench in her memory is also just yards from where the filming took place.
Injurylawyers4U pulled the advert after complaints had been made to the Advertising Standards Agency.
Cheshire East Council, as the highways authority, had given permission for the filming to take place earlier this year, when the road was closed off to traffic.
But in its response to the advert being taken off air, Cheshire East apologised for the “distress” it had caused. It said the link between the chosen filming location and what had “tragically occurred” there previously “wasn’t immediately obvious to us” and that as the filming application met all safety criteria, it had been approved.
Thanking those who had complained to the Advertising Standards Agency via the Georgia Leigh Ogden Foundation, the charity set up in her name, Georgia’s mother Mandy Ogden said: “We are incredibly grateful and overwhelmed by your support.”
Referring to permission having been granted for the filming she said: “A licence for this should never have been granted in the first place. It’s been a very emotional few days.
“We hope that lessons have been learnt and this doesn’t happen to any other families again in our situation.”
She added that while “the damage has already been done” the family had received a written apology from the company.
“Clearly none of the parties involved in allowing this to go ahead considered the emotional impact this would have on us even though there were clear indicators at this location,” said Mrs Ogden, who also pointed out that “we haven’t heard back from Cheshire East Council yet”.
Injurylawyers4U started its location search last November and chose Astbury because it had been suggested by Cheshire East “as there were potential diversion routes for local residents” that “would be the safest and cause the least disruption”.
But posting on X, formerly known as Twitter, in response to complaints about its advert, the company said: “We sincerely apologise for any distress caused.
“All the appropriate research was conducted and standard procedures were followed. It was never our intention to cause upset and we are working quickly to remove that ad from all platforms.”
