Council blocks new takeaway opening because children in UK town 'already too fat'
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Plans to open a new takeaway in a British town have been blocked by the local council bosses who claim children in the area are already too fat. Fast food chain, Woody’s Pizza, which operates two locations across Lancashire, wanted to open a third site in the town of Bacup.
Owner Colum Hustler had asked for permission to take over the site of a former cafe and wine bar which permanently closed earlier this year. The takeaway firm claims its recipes have ‘minimal salt and sugar’ and said it would buy ingredients locally from the town’s market.
But council bosses have thwarted the expansion plans, saying it contravened local plans as children in the area are already overweight. Rossendale Borough Council's rules state it will not support any planning permission for hot food takeaways in areas where more than 15% of Year 6 pupils or 10% of Reception class age pupils are classified as obese.
And public health bosses say 20% of 10 to 11 year-old pupils and 11.6% of Reception aged children are obese in the Greensclough ward area. In a notice published on December 16, Rossendale Council refused planning permission, on the grounds of there being too many obese children in the town, and that it would “detract to an unacceptable extent from the living conditions of residents living in the vicinity of the site”.
Previous plans to replace an ice cream and dessert shop on the same road with a hot food takeaway were also refused for the same reasons back in 2023. In a scathing objection to the pizza restaurant's plans, the council’s senior planning officer Claire Bradley said the takeaway restaurant ‘fails to do justice to a heritage building’.
