The application for the sign, put forward by Sainsbury's Local in Coten End, was this month approved by Warwick District Council, with all but one of the nine planning committee members being in favour.

This was despite the fact that objections had been put forward by Warwick Town Council, the Conservation Area Advisory Forum and people living in the area.

Emscote Road resident John Stevens said: "All the objectors felt there was already sufficient signage and there was enough advertising next to a listed building in a conservation area.

"These objections were completely ignored."

He added: "It appears that the district council are a law unto themselves and begs the question: why are these arrogant, unelected public servants not accountable to the community that funds their comfortable incomes and gold-plated pensions?"

Warwick town council planning chairman, Trudy Offer, said: "We gave it a real good talking and we questioned the logic of it.

"We thought it was too big and there are already enough signs there."

But Mrs Offer, whose daughter attends Coten End Primary School, acknowledged that the advertising boards currently in place could cause potential dangers to schoolchildren passing by in windy weather.

She said: "From a resident's point of view, it is disappointing, but from a mother's point of view, a totem sign is better than the boards which are currently there.

"We were hoping that the sign could have been smaller and we did our best to put the case across."

Warwick District Council's planning chairman, Coun Bertie MacKay (Ind, Stoneleigh), said: "The application was granted because the sign will serve two other units as well as Sainsbury's.

"At the moment there is a jumble of advertisers there and it looks like a mess. Putting up the totem sign will be much neater from the point of view of the street scene."