TRAFFIC chiefs are investigating an illegally placed trailer advertising Funderworld theme park, which one road expert has branded a traffic hazard.

Anxious drivers contacted the Daily Echo after spotting it in a layby southbound on the spur road just outside Ringwood.

The Nottingham-based fun park is in Kings Park, Bournemouth until the end of the month.

Dorset Police have contacted Funderworld and asked the company to get it moved.

Hazel Bancroft, vice-chairman of Dorset Institute of Advanced Motorists, said: "It's a hazard, particularly in the dark.

"It should have warning lights. It's right up to the nearside lane and lorries coming down in the dark could clip their mirrors or have to swerve out."

One driver told the Daily Echo: "I was driving down there in the dark and it seemed to loom out of nowhere."

Another said: "It feels like the corner is sticking out so I pulled out a little to go round it."

A Dorset County Council spokesman said yesterday: "It's illegal for it to be there. Advertising is not allowed on the highways.

"We are going to send someone up there in the next 24 hours to have a look at it and when he has seen it we will know what action to take."

A spokesman for Funderworld's PR company, the Ideas Factory, said: "Unfortunately we have not been able to get in contact with the client so we can't comment."

When a subsequent call was made to Funderworld minutes later a man who said he was the boss said he could not comment.