Plans to install a large digital billboard on a busy city road have been thwarted by the council.

Advertising company Clear Channel UK had hoped to erect a 3m x 6m advertising hoarding on the roof of Topps Tiles in Mile Cross Lane in the city's NR6 area.

But plans lodged in August last year were refused by Norwich City Council's planning team, who said the structure would be "incongruous with and harmful to the visual amenity of the area".

Had plans been approved the billboard would have shown an array of different adverts for companies such as car manufacturers and telecommunications companies on a high-resolution LED screen.

When refusing the plans, the council's head of planning Sarah Ashurst said: "The internally illuminated digital display board represents a significant change to the current situation, by virtue of its illumination, large scale and sitting at the very edge of a commercial area that directly abuts a residential area."

A representative from Norfolk County Council's transportation department had also raised concerns the sign could lead to an increase in accidents if adverts were distracting.

Public commenters had also been worried about the billboard's close proximity to schools while adding they felt it was "absurd to allow energy hungry advertising continue to expand in our fine city".

It comes after activists replaced bus stop adverts across the city for high-polluting vehicles.