A cafe owner who was ordered to tear down an extractor fan because the smell of bacon offended Muslims was celebrating a ‘victory for commons sense’ today.
Beverley Akciecek has won her appeal against the ruling by Stockport councillors.
Mrs Akciecek’s neighbour’s had claimed their Muslim friends were refusing to visit because they ‘couldn’t stand’ the odour.
And the Lib Dem-run council ruled the smell from the fan, which has been in Bev’s Snack Shack for more than three years, was ‘unacceptable on the grounds of residential amenity’ and told her to take it down.
But the mother-of-seven and her husband Cetin, 50, who is himself a Turkish Muslim, appealed the decision.
After a six-month legal battle, the Planning Inspectorate finally announced they had won their case.
The council will now have to pay all of Mrs Akciecek’s legal costs plus their own, which include the costs of planning reports, lawyers’ consultations and meetings. All will be met by the public purse.
She said today: ‘This a victory for common sense but we shouldn’t have been put through this in the first place. Continue Reading →