COUNCIL chiefs have resorted to turning off brand new video display screens at bus stops due to the “massive racket” they were making.

The new £35,000 bus stops close to Weymouth’s King’s Statue have been made to include the screens with images promoting the Olympic sailing events being held in the borough next year.

But after the first two were fitted and turned on passengers and passers-by could hear “excessively” noisy fans in the installations from across the road.

Dorset County Council confirmed the fans which cool the screens are making the noise and not the screens themselves.

Alex Hurst, 16, uses the bus to get home to Cornflower Close in Weymouth after school.

He said: “They were making a massive racket and everyone was wondering where it came from because you couldn’t hear each other speak.”

Kenneth Fishwick, 75, of Holzwickede Court, Littlemoor, said the noise sounded “like a generator”.

“It was very loud,” he said.

“We wondered what it was at first and we were quite annoyed that it was so loud.”

The seven new shelters have been installed on Weymouth seafront by Dorset County Council using money provided by the Government as part of the Olympic Transport Package.

The problem screens are placed on the outside of the bus stops.

New information screens showing the times of buses are still to be installed on the inside.

Stella Roper, from Weymouth, was passing with her mother Eileen.

“You can hear the roar from across the road,” said Stella.

“I first thought it was a waiting bus with its engine running but when I got close I realized it was coming from the bus shelter itself and not the bus.”

Her mother Eileen added: “They do look really smart but something is clearly wrong.”

Ray Sheldon, from Portland, was passing on the seafront.

He said “Buses come in from along the coast and drop off passengers and rather than hearing the sound of the sea it’s akin to arriving at Gatwick Airport.”

Robert Gutteridge, owner of The Tea Cabin, said the screen’s are “a great idea” if they can be made to be quiet.

He said: “Surely in the 21st century they could’ve produced something that wasn’t so noisy.

“It’s a great idea that typifies the modern way Weymouth is going in promoting parts of the area so it’s very good.”