Estate agents have been threatened with a £1,000 fine for advertising a school Christmas fair on their 'for sale' signs.

Both companies also face an extra £100 fine for each day the signs, publicising events such as Santa's grotto and cake stalls, remain in Brighton and Hove.

Estate agents Avard and Wyatt & Son agreed to publicise two school fairs on their boards.

Parents and school staff were shocked to learn months of work would go down the drain after Brighton and Hove City Council deemed the signs illegal.

Letters ordering the estate agents to remove the signs within seven days were fired off from the council's planning department.

But the strongly-worded missives, stating contraventions to the Town and Country Planning (Control of Advertisements) Regulations 1992, have backfired and caused red faces at the council.

Days after the letters were received, one of the offending signs was spotted in the garden of Julie Cattell - one of the council's planning officers.

The sign, advertising the Christmas art and craft fair at Downs Junior School, was still at the front of Ms Cattell's home in Rugby Road, Brighton, yesterday.

It was one of more than 30 erected in the city through a £850 deal with Wyatt & Son.

Neighbours' houses have Avard Estate Agents signs in their gardens promoting next month's fair at Downs Infant School.

Avard donated about £1,000 to the Ditchling Road infants school for 30 signs, plus £800 for playground equipment.

A council spokesman said Ms Cattell, who has children at the school and is a member of the PTA, was not aware of her colleague's decision to ban the signs.

He said: "She wasn't involved in any enforcement action and was very embarrassed when it was pointed out.

"Obviously she will take the sign down. While we're saying it breaks the rules we've never suggested it's the crime of the century."

PTA members at both schools spent months clinching deals to raise money to help pupils.

Jo Sadd, vice chairwoman of the infant school PTA, who helped organise the sponsorship, said the council's decision put future fund-raising in jeopardy.

She said: "I'm outraged. If the council funded the school enough we wouldn't have to do all this fund-raising."

Ruth Bailey, who chairs the PTA, said council members should have better things to do.

She said: "I'm furious. The LEA doesn't fund our schools properly so our community spends hours fund-raising. The council seems intent on sabotaging our efforts.

"If they are successful, it will cost us a piece of play equipment. This is an inner city school and we need the money."

Avard owner Sean Avard said the company sponsored many schools.

He said: "We want to give back to the community but this was also a good business proposition. This is typical council bureaucracy and red tape."

Dominic Hultier, branch manager at Wyatt, said its signs would be taken down soon.

He said: "People have a low opinion of estate agents but when we try to put something back into the community, the council stamps all over it."

The company had received no other complaints.

The council spokesman said: "We don't want to appear over-strict but the rules are designed to stop people using their gardens as advertising sites and the whole place looking a mess.

"It is impossible to frame the law in a way which prevents rogue advertisers yet permits clever campaigns in favour of popular causes. While the school gets publicity, so does a private business and many people might object."

The infant school fair is on December 14 and the junior school event is next Saturday.