Giant illuminated Costa Coffee sign refused by Newport council

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A major proposal to install a towering, illuminated Costa Coffee sign near the M4 in Newport has been blocked by local authorities, highlighting ongoing tensions between commercial visibility and environmental aesthetics.

Costa Coffee’s application for a 10-metre-high LED-lit sign outside its drive-thru by the Ty Newport Hotel on Chepstow Road was rejected by Newport City Council, who cited “significant concerns over the visual impact and the appropriateness of the design in a rural setting”1. The company argued that the new sign, featuring a red powder-coated aluminium base and glowing opal acrylic lettering, was needed to boost visibility from the road and attract more customers, especially as the site has struggled with footfall since opening last year.

Despite assurances from the council’s highway officer that the sign would not interfere with road safety and that its luminance levels were within acceptable limits, the landscape officer strongly opposed the plan.

In the official report, the landscape officer stated, “From a street scene perspective this feature would be extremely detrimental by adding additional significant visual pollution in a vertical and illuminated form. The Costa Coffee unit is already clear and unattractive enough in itself.” The report also dismissed Costa’s comparison between the proposed sign and the existing flagpoles, noting, “The applicant letter points to the sign replacing existing flagpoles, but the latter have a different visual effect and are not illuminated. Flagpoles at hotels are commonplace and they appear sympathetic in context.”

Ultimately, officials concluded the sign was “an unacceptable reaction to this and poorly conceived,” warning that approving such a structure could set a precedent for similarly oversized advertising in the area, potentially leading to a proliferation of illuminated signs that would disrupt the visual character of the location1. The council recommended that a smaller, more subtle sign would be more suitable, balancing business needs with the preservation of local landscape character.

This is not Costa’s first clash with local planners over signage at this site. In 2018, a proposal for a 6.35-metre totem sign was also rejected for similar reasons, underscoring a broader trend in the UK where councils are increasingly scrutinizing large-scale advertising for its environmental and aesthetic impact12.

Research from the UK’s Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) has found that excessive roadside advertising can contribute to what they term “visual clutter,” which can negatively affect both community well-being and the perceived quality of rural and suburban environments.

Costa Coffee did not respond to requests for comment on the latest decision. The debate reflects a wider national conversation about balancing commercial interests with the need to protect public spaces from what experts and campaigners describe as “visual pollution”—a phenomenon increasingly recognized in urban planning and environmental psychology research as detrimental to both local identity and mental well-being.