Plans for a new fish and chip restaurant in York would make life “intolerable”, say its neighbours.
As YorkMix reported last month, Yorkies Fish and Chips has applied for permission to transform 24-26 Coppergate into a “high-end seafood restaurant and takeaway”.
This was the building that was previously home to Italian restaurant Vitoria.
The plans say the new place will serve “proper fish and chips made with passion, tradition, and just the right amount of salt and vinegar”.
But the proposal has alarmed residents living close to the planned restaurant.
In an objection to the planning application, one neighbour states: “A fish-and-chip takeaway is likely to involve prolonged and intensive frying, which creates a materially different risk of persistent cooking odours, grease particles and fumes when compared with many conventional restaurant uses.
“Given the immediate proximity of my flat, I am concerned that emissions could enter through my windows or ventilation openings and prevent me from opening my windows or ventilating and enjoying my home normally.”
Another set of neighbours say they have already been exposed to about ten industrial mechanical systems situated immediately next to their home.
They have been in dispute with City of York Council over the noise, emissions and smell from these systems for the last two and a half years.
“A fish-and-chip business will, by its nature, involve intensive deep-fat frying, prolonged kitchen activity, continued use of extraction and ventilation equipment, additional mechanical noise, cooking odours, greasy emissions and increased commercial activity,” they write.
“It is evident that adding this new burden to the existing burden will directly and seriously affect us.”
Every additional mechanical noise and frying odour will “therefore reach our home directly. We have no alternative side of the property to which we can retreat, no other elevation from which we can obtain fresh air and no alternative way to ventilate our home.”
They add: “Our lives are already being seriously harmed by the existing environmental burden.
“Approval of this application would take the existing problems to an intolerable level and would effectively remove our ability to maintain a healthy life.
“It would place a final and crushing burden upon living conditions that have already become unliveable.”
No date has yet been set for a decision on the application.