Fresh concerns have been raised over the safety of an infamous five-way "nightmare" roundabout in Woodville.

At a South Derbyshire District Council meeting last night (June 6) talk turned to the notorious Clock Roundabout, a known traffic hotspot.

Councillors commented that the roundabout needs road markings to be made clearer to avoid causing confusion and traffic accidents.

This came as plans from Vivid Outdoor Media Solutions Ltd, for a 6.2 metre by 3.2 metre digital advertising board to be erected indefinitely on the side of 1 High Street, Woodville, overlooking the roundabout, were discussed.

The digital advertising board would be visible for motorists travelling towards the Clock Roundabout along the A511, past the New Inn pub and Woodville Box Club.

Woodville Parish Council objected to the planned new board saying: "Members consider a digital display of such size to be distracting to motorists whilst using an extremely busy roundabout. The parish council objects to this application on the grounds of highway safety."

While advertising boards are typically constrained to permission for up to five years, the applicant had asked that this restriction should be scrapped, with adverts having been displayed on the same spot for years, including between 2008 and 2017.

At last night's meeting, Cllr Amy Wheelton said that fellow councillor Malc Gee, who owned a driving school for years, was an expert on the Highway Code and raised issues with the road markings on the approach past the New Inn pub and Woodville Box Club.

This is where one lane splits into three, with two heading towards the roundabout and one directing left onto Moira Road.

She said highways officers at Derbyshire County Council said the markings were fine but had not responded to a number of key questions, which councillors would like answered before they decide on the advertising board application.

Cllr Wheelton said: "They tend to sit in their office in Matlock and look at Google Maps and then submit a sweeping statement, from Matlock, saying there are no highways issues."

Steffan Saunders, the district council's head of planning, said there was sufficient information from highways to decide on the application.

Cllr Mick Mulgrew dubbed the roundabout an "absolute nightmare".

He said: "Highways officers do not know the challenges here, I don't think anybody knows what they are doing on that roundabout.

"There are no road markings whatsoever, nobody knows what they are doing.

"If we then have lights flashing from this board then you are in trouble."

Cllr Wheelton said: "If there is an accident at Clock Garage (the Kwik-Fit branch off the roundabout host to a large clock, giving the roundabout the name) next week then I don't want people saying 'oh well they approved that application now too'."

Paul Hardy, the applicant, said if there was a substantial change in the area which meant the board was no longer suitable then they would remove the advertisement, saying the previous non digital, paper sign had been displayed for 30 years without any reported issues.

Council officers wrote that the sign would not include moving images and images would appear on the screen for a minimum of 10 seconds, both in a bid to avoid presenting a distraction for motorists.

In the end, councillors deferred a decision on the application until they had a meeting on the site with a safety officer from the county council and an expert councillor – Cllr Malc Gee.