A struggling café owner has been forced to remove a sign advertising her business because it "distracted drivers".

Donna Jenney, 44, who owns the Riverside Café on Beverley's Grovehill Industrial Estate, said the move by East Riding Council was "ridiculous" and a kick in the teeth for desperate businesses during the recession.

Ms Jenney started a bikers' night four weeks ago to help her business and put out an A-board on a patch of grass separating lanes by Grovehill Road roundabout.

She said the sandwich board was outside for just three hours every Tuesday night and helped people to find her café, which is tucked away, off the main road.

But council officers said the sign would draw drivers' attention away from the road and threatened her with a £75 fine.

Ms Jenney called it "the last nail in the coffin" for her business.

She said: "If that is a distraction, then so are the flower beds on the roundabout, or girls walking past half-naked in the summer, or the sign pointing people towards the East Riding Council depot.

"It is outrageous that, at a time when businesses are struggling and I am trying to do something to let people know where I am, the council will not show some leeway."

The Riverside Café is one of 70 businesses in the East Riding that have been handed warning notices about A-boards in the past 12 months. Eight of these have been penalised.

The council has given a variety of different reasons for the removal of the signs, including distraction to drivers, obstruction to footpaths and the impact on the environment.

A spokesperson said it was merely enforcing the 1980 Highways Act.

He said: "The situation around Grovehill Road is about the boards distracting drivers.

"We do not want drivers' attention to be distracted or diverted from the road. It is therefore not appropriate to have these signs by a busy roundabout. This is national legislation."

The spokesperson said the council had a successful clampdown on boards on Beverley's high street four years ago.

He said: "A few years ago, there were more than 100 premises with boards outside along North Bar Within, Saturday Market and Wednesday Market.

"It is a heavily pedestrianised area and, as such, we asked businesses if they could get rid of the signs. We had a really good response and since then, it has just been a case of staying on top of that."

Turkish restaurant Seraglio's was fined twice at Christmas – £75 for each side of its A-board – after putting a sign out on North Bar Within, in the town centre.

Manager Kafadar Seraglio, said: "They said my sign was a distraction to drivers, but if that is a distraction then so is the names of shops painted above the doors, or signs put up in windows."

Poppy Seed cafe, also on North Bar Within, is another business which has received a warning letter about its A-board.

Waitress Teresa O'Grady said: "If the tables and chairs which go along with the new cafe culture in Beverley aren't causing an obstruction, how can our board be?

"We cannot afford the corporate advertising of the Costas and the Cafe Neros.

"If our boards are distracting drivers, then I assume the council won't be putting up distracting Christmas lights this year."

Sandy Patience, chairman of the Beverley and District Civic Society, said the claim that A boards distract drivers was "bonkers."

He said: "If the council is going to make an assertion like this, it needs to be based on evidence. Have they conducted a survey to ask if it does distract them?"

Jackie Snape, director of charity Disability Action Yorkshire, supported the move by the council.

She said: "The position of some A-boards shows no consideration for people with restricted mobility who, at times, have no choice but to move into the road to avoid them."