CUT-price supermarket firm Lidl wants to put up a 20 feet high flagpole sign beside the Cades Farm roundabout on the edge of Wellington to advertise the store it wants to build there.

The controversial 22,500 sq ft supermarket was approved by district council planners in January despite the land being allocated for employment use.

Now, the company has applied for planning permission for advertisement signs on the site, which include the internally illuminated flagpole with a seven-foot square Lidl logo mounted on it.

District council landscape officer Paul Bryan, commenting for the planning department, said the flagpole sign would be ‘conspicuous in what is a prominent location and where there is little competition from other signs in the area’.

Mr Bryan said the flagpole sign would conflict with the council’s detailed planning policies for managing development sites.

The policies state: “To maintain the attractive character of Taunton Deane it is important to safeguard the landscape setting and prevent unsightly or inappropriate development along approach routes into towns such as main roads. Roadside advertising, additional highway signs, and design features such as traffic roundabouts, have tended to proliferate and have caused main roads such as the A38 and A358 to become increasingly cluttered and unsightly.

“This is unfortunate as it is often these roads that provide visitors to Taunton Deane with their initial impression of the quality of the area. Visual impact therefore needs to be given greater weight in future decisions affecting planning and highway development.”

The policies also state that permission should not be given for advertisements and signs which were ‘unduly prominent’.

Mr Bryan said: “I think in light of the policy we should recommend to the applicant that they reconsider the need for the mast in the position shown, especially as there is ample signage on the building that will be seen from both directions on the Taunton Road. I note that other Lidl stores, the ones I have noticed in Dorset, have low level signs at the entrance.”

Lidl also wants permission for a freestanding illuminated seven feet high and nearly six feet wide poster display unit set back slightly from the road.

Two ‘small’ illuminated advertising hoardings, two larger illuminated billboards, and two fascia signs on the outside of the building would also all face the road into Wellington.

The billboards would measure 10.6 feet high by 20.6 feet wide, while the advertising hoardings would be 5.4 feet in height and 10.6 feet in width, and the fascia signs on the store canopy would be eight feet in both height and width.

Public consultation on the advertising proposals closes today (Friday) and district council planning officer Karen Wray is due to make a decision under delegated powers by July 1.