THURROCK Council planning officers have vetoed new signs at a borough petrol and service station – next to an iconic local leisure venue – on the grounds that they will 'result in visual clutter which would cause harm to, and would have a detrimental visual impact on, the surrounding area'.

The application for three new totem style advertising posts which would be ten, seven and three metres high respectively was submitted for the site of the Esso garage on the arterial road at Purfleet-on-Thames next to the Circus Tavern.

The three signs would have been illuminated and displayed the Esso corporate logo.

A council report into the application says the site is distant from any residential properties and, as such, the proposals would have no effect on light, privacy or outlook within any nearby property.

Though there were no objections to the application planning officers have decreed: "The proposals would result in a significant degree of commercial visual clutter which would be clearly visible to motorists and pedestrians which would distract from the visual amenity of the site and locality."

And they rejected the application.