Monmouthshire County Council planning committee has approved the siting of two free-standing signs alongside the A472 near Usk - owned by the council but rented out to local businesses for advertising.

Seven previously proposed signs, however, had been withdrawn from the application.

A council spokesperson said checks were carried out on all sites and the seven were removed following concerns raised by planners because of visual impact and by highway engineers in relation to safety.

There had been strong local opposition during the consultation period to the notion of signs on multiple sites around Usk.

The town council argued there were already a ‘forest’ of signs on roadsides in the area. Llanbadoc Community Council also objected, saying the signs located on a fast road with limited visibility would be a distraction to drivers.

Usk Civic Society raised the same concerns and argued the signs were ‘tacky’ and would detract from the appearance of the locations at which they would be placed.

And there had been 21 individual representations objecting for a variety of reasons including: littering of the landscape; the impact on road safety; that it was a ‘cheap and nasty way to downgrade the approach to a beautiful town’; that there was no evidence of economic benefit and that MCC had failed to disclose the application on its website or GIS alerts.

The two signs - approved last Tuesday by nine votes to two - will be erected near the main Coleg Gwent Usk campus and the Equestrian Centre. They will measure 1050mm x 550mm, with a 1050mm x 200mm sign beneath displaying contact information.

County councillor Val Smith, who represents the Llanbadoc ward, said at the planning committee meeting that she supported the idea of the highways department generating income but wondered why they favoured putting up small roadside signs when the same adverts could be used ‘to enhance tatty bus shelters’.

She said she was also concerned about road safety - pointing out that there had been six fatalities on the stretch of the A472 during her time as a councillor.

Case officer Andrew Jones said in his report that, since the college already featured a number of large signs, the proposed new signs would not cause ‘unacceptable additional harm to the visual amenity of the area’.

Regarding highway safety, Sign One would be within a 40mph section of the road which also featured a controlled pedestrian crossing at the college campus which naturally reduced traffic speeds, so it was not considered it would cause an unacceptable distraction to drivers.

Sign Two would be on a straight section of the road approximately 60m from the nearest junction.

* Applications were also considered for batches of similar signs in the Chepstow, Crick, Caldicot, Undy, Magor and Rogiet areas.

Councillor Bob Hayward argued that the signs were so small passing motorists wouldn’t be able to read them and they would just be ‘cluttering up the highway’.

Councillor Peter Farley said electors might well ask how it came about that the applicant (the council’s highways department) was providing technical advice, which was not challenged or questioned, to the council’s planning committee.

“You couldn’t make this up - it would stand well alongside a Monty Python script,” he said. “If McDonald’s had come along with these proposals they would have been laughed at.”

But the planning team said that they had considered the applications in the same way as they would any other planning application.