Complaints after huge new LED billboard erected in Southend city centre

Residents living in a block of flats in Southend city centre are complaining after a huge new illuminated digital advertising screen was erected, 11 metres off the ground.

Southend City Council approved plans for the LED advertising display unit on the outside of the Victoria Plaza shopping centre last year.

The plans were approved on the basis that the intensity of illumination of the digital screen would not exceed brightness limits.

It is understood that the new digital screen is currently in testing.

At the time of approving the new screen, council planning officers said: “It is considered that the display unit and the advertisements it will bear would not appear out of keeping in this location and would instead be complementary to the application site and the wider commercial character of the area.

The illumination of the display screen would be internal and static, at an appropriate level of illumination. There are no residential premises within the immediate vicinity.”