ADVERTISING banners could be placed on council offices and corporate sponsorship found for the National Water Sports Centre in a bid to boost council coffers.

Notts County Council is looking at ways the council could make money through advertising in order to help balance its books.

The idea was suggested by members of the public as part of the council's Big Budget Conservation.

Councillor Reg Adair, cabinet member for finance, said: "There's been very little done on this front in the past in the shire.

"There's money to be generated. It's a bit early to put figures but there's some reasonable sums there."

The authority is exploring whether banners could go on buildings such as Trent Bridge House, at Trent Bridge cricket ground.

It is looking into whether this would be legally possible and would speak to Notts County Cricket Club.

Adverts could also be placed on grit bins to help fund their maintenance, and streetlights at "gateway" points between the city and county could also have banners.

"We are a large shire, there's lots of different ways we could do it," Mr Adair said.

Sponsors could also be sought for events at country parks and the National Water Sports Centre along the same lines as the Capital FM Arena.

Mr Adair added the council would have to ensure only reputable firms advertised with the council.

He said: "We would have to be careful as a public authority. But having done that, there's a lot of good firms out there and only a small number of bad, so that shouldn't be a big problem for us.

"If we can generate more cash through different ways, then that money is there and doesn't have to be found elsewhere."

The authority has also started charging for Trading Standards advice it has previously given for free.

He added that although the council could make some money to help ease cuts, it would still make cuts where it was "prudent and efficient" to do so.

The Big Budget Conversation ran from September to the end of December and was designed to allow people to say how they thought council cash should be spent.

The budget passed by the council last month contained more than £80 million in cuts, with the authority needing to save more than £150 million over the next three years.

Other ideas considered include putting coffee shops in libraries and charging more for wedding and civil partnership ceremonies on more popular days.

Rufford Country Park is set to use parking machines rather than an attendant to collect parking charges. If successful, the machines could be rolled out to other parks.

Council leader Kay Cutts said: "We have listened and we are currently exploring a number of worthwhile ideas from residents to see if we can make them happen.

"Local residents and staff are often best placed to see how the council can improve the way we work and save money as they either use or help run our services."