Cafe Owner Wins Appeal After Neighbor Claimed ‘smell of bacon offends Muslims’


An English court declared that the owners of a cafe were allowed to keep cooking bacon, despite the complaints of the neighbor, who made a point to highlight his Muslim religion.

 A CAFE owner who was told to remove an extractor fan because the smell of frying bacon offended Muslims was celebrating last night after a six-month legal battle.

Beverley Akciecek and her Turkish Muslim husband Cetin won on appeal to keep the fan.

Taxpayers will have to foot the legal bill after a council cooked up a fuss following complaints by neighbour Graham Webb-Lee.

He said Muslim friends refused to visit him because “they can’t stand the smell of the bacon”.

He claimed the “foul odour” was making them feel “physically sick” but was unable to produce any such friends to back him up.

About 18 months ago Lib-Dem-run Stockport Council wrote to the Akcieceks after Mr Webb-Lee complained. Environmental services officers visited the cafe, but ruled there was no nuisance. Mr Webb-Lee continued to complain.
The couple were eventually caught out because they had not applied for planning permission to install the new fan. When they applied retrospectively they were turned down by Stockport Area Committee on October 14.They launched the appeal, taking their fight to the Government-run Planning Inspectorate.It finally quashed the order. Beverley said: “It would have cost us a couple of grand to move the fan, which we just didn’t have.

This is a victory for common-sense business law in England. Forcing a cafe to close for producing smells, as most cafes tend to, would have set a strange and unfair precedent for small-business owners. Mr. Web-Lee continues to complain, but without any other legal avenue for his frustration to manifest, he’ll be forced to cope.

Source: Express



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