ADVERTISING hoardings will be erected on six roundabouts in the district in a bid to raise money for the council.

Epping Forest District Council says its company-sponsored signs project will ease budgetary pressures and fund roundabout maintenance.

Plans to install 5ft-wide signs on the The Talbot and Four Wantz roundabouts on the A414 in North Weald; at the junction of Abbeyview and Highbridge Street in Waltham Abbey; on London Road A113/A1112; and on the two roundabouts on Honey Lane, Waltham Abbey, near the M25, have been approved by the council's planning committee.

But proposed billboards at nine other locations were rejected following concerns they would pose a dangerous distraction to motorists and ruin areas of natural beauty.

Plans to put seven of the signs at two locations within Epping Forest - at the Wake Arms and Robin Hood roundabouts on Epping New Road - were turned down after Richard Morris, from conservators City of London, told the committee it would compromise a £5.5million project to enhance the ancient woodland.

Patricia Moxey, from the Campaign to Protect Rural Essex, told councillors the ‘eyesore’ signs would ‘detract from the tranquillity the forest offers from other glaring signs in the district’.

The boards will carry the Epping Forest District Council and Essex County Council logos, and an advert from a private company which will be required to pay for the upkeep of the roundabout.