ADVERTISEMENTS can adorn the giant Whey Aye Wheel planned for the banks of the River Tyne.

Councillors have voted in favour of an application by developers to be allowed to show adverts, films and sporting events on the 460ft observation wheel earmarked for the former Spillers mill site, on the riverside in Newcastle.

The city council’s planning committee voted to grant advertising consent by eight to four, the same majority as approved the development of the £100m attraction last year, despite claims it will blight the river front.

Following previous concerns over the scale of the advertising billboard space, which some opponents feared could pose a safety hazard for road and river traffic, the company behind the project, The World Wheel Company, went back to the drawing board and reduced the size of the screen.

Advertising will now only appear on the central 60-per cent of the screen,.

But objectors still say it will still take up 449-square metres, the size of one and three-quarter tennis courts, flanked by blank panels.

No sound will be projected from the screen, but those watching films and sporting events could use headphones or an app to access volume.

Conditions imposed by the council include a 10pm “switch off” and an advertising-free period when the wheel is not in use.