Oct 10
24
Islamists and bureaucrats dictate Britain’s café industry
The Daily Mail – 21st October 2010
Cafe owner ordered to remove extractor fan because neighbour claimed “smell of frying bacon offends Muslims”
A hard-working cafe owner has been ordered to tear down an extractor fan – because the smell of her frying bacon “offends” Muslims. Planning bosses acted against Beverley Akciecek, 49, after being told her next-door neighbour’s Muslim friends had felt “physically sick” due to the “foul odour.” Councillors at Stockport Council in Greater Manchester say the smell from the fan is “unacceptable on the grounds of residential amenity.” The fan has been in Beverley’s Snack Shack takeaway in the Shaw Heath area of the town for the past three years.
Mrs Akciecek and her husband Cetin, 50, – himself a Turkish Muslim – work more than 50 hours a week buying, preparing and cooking hot and cold sandwiches and hot-pots for their customers.
Today mother-of-seven Mrs Akciecek said she plans to appeal against the decision. She said: “I just think it’s crazy. Cetin’s friends actually visit the shop, they’re regular visitors, they’re Muslim people, they come in a couple of times a week. I have Muslim people come in for cheese toasties. Cetin cooks the food himself, he cooks the bacon. When we go to a cafe my husband wouldn’t be offended by the smell of bacon. His friends are not offended by it, we have three visitors who come here for a sandwich, friends of my husband, and the smell doesn’t offend them at all. My brother-in-law doesn’t flinch if he comes and we’ve just taken out three trays of bacon. I’m going to find a local councillor. I’m waiting for the letter so I can appeal.”
The couple took over the take-away in 2007 from the previous owner and replaced the existing extractor fan, which had been there for six years, with a new modern one. They claim they received no complaints about the cafe which is open from 7.30am-2.30pm six days a week, until around 18 months ago when they received a letter from environmental services to say their neighbour Graham Webb-Lee had complained about the smell. Mrs Akciecek said: “We’ve never had a problem about the smell because everything is pre-cooked. We cook it in the oven so there’s no foul smell. It’s pre-cooked so the smell isn’t as strong when we’re frying it off. It’s like living next to someone who’s cooking a Sunday breakfast but it’s not constant it’s just in the morning.
“It’s been a sandwich shop for about eight years, cooking exactly the same stuff. The lady before me did double because they were actually building new houses across the road so she was really busy. She was here from 6am-4pm because they were so busy. They were there before me but they were also there when the lady who owns the business was here and she was doing double what we are. She had five staff, you can imagine how bust that shop was and they never complained at all.”