A BROADWAY businessman has hit out over highway advertising restrictions he claims are affecting his company.

Julian Rapp, managing director of Glasshouse Interior Designs at Childswickham, has been ordered by Wychavon District Council to remove a directional sign and an A-board promoting his business's location.

He has been threatened with legal enforcement action if he refuses to take away the directional sign, which is on highway-owned land, and the A-board, placed on a highway verge.

Mr Rapp erected the signs without the permission.

Glasshouse Interior Designs, a soft furnishings manufacturer specialising in curtains, employs four people at Willow Park, where it has been based for three years.

"To fill the capacity that's available, we do need to attract a further amount of trade," said Mr Rapp, aged 35.

He explained that smaller signs he had previously put up had been stolen. "We need a permanent fixture," he added.

"We asked the council for the big brown and cream signs but the council just turned us down flat."

He went on: "They left us with no alternative but to take the matter into our own hands and put the signs up, almost as a protest."

Mr Rapp felt the regulations penalised small enterprises: "It's totally unfair. It's not conducive to small businesses in the area," he said.

"How are people supposed to know you're there? It's impossible."

Wychavon's area planning officer for the south of the district, Mark Lynch, said of Mr Rapp's actions: "It's a risk he takes. We have obviously explained the situation to him from a legal point of view.

"It's highly unlikely we would grant him planning consent for what he has planned."

He added, however: "If he has a problem, we will be fairly sympathetic towards him in trying to come to some sort of mutual solution."

If that did not provide the answer, said Mr Lynch, Mr Rapp might have to consider an alternative option.

"If he is having difficulty attracting people to where he is he might have to think about moving somewhere else or finding another way of attracting people to his business," Mr Lynch said.