Pizza restaurant blocked by council because local children are ‘too fat’

An independent takeaway’s chains plans for expansion have been thwarted by council bosses who said children in the area are too fat.

Woody’s Pizza, which operates two locations in 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 chain says it uses ‘minimal salt and sugar’ in its recipes and would buy its ingredients from the town’s local market.

But council bosses have thwarted the expansion plans, saying it contravened local plans as children in the area are too fat.

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.

Locals Eric Halliwell, 75, said he didn’t believe children in the area were fat, and disagreed with the decision to reject the plans.

He said: “I don’t think there is an issue. The children are all right, I’ve seen children and I haven’t seen anything that’s obese.

“They’re slim, they have boxing gyms and everything, so why worry about the obese?

“The more business you get, the more people will come, you need to get people to come into Bacup, not go out of Bacup.

“If they don’t come here they’ll go somewhere else, they’ll always find somewhere.

“They haven’t got anything have they, kids, they haven’t got anything anywhere, nowhere to play, nothing to do. It’s boring for them.

“Even when they’re not at school, they’ll do damage before they’ll do any good. They need somewhere to go, of course they do.”

Rossendale Borough Council’s own 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.

However, 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.

Sarah O’Neill, co co-owner of family business Nellie’s café, located just a few doors down the road, said her café tries to focus on serving healthy food.

The 37-year-old, who also works as a nurse on the stroke ward at nearby Fairfield General Hospital, said: “I do think people should be given a chance to actually open up with healthy food, I do think there is room for somebody to do healthy takeaways.”

The family’s café also plans to apply for a takeaway licence, and said she would fight against any rejection.

Sarah added: “We could actually apply and we may get a ‘no,’ but you just don’t know do you.

“Because we would be doing healthy food, I’d be kind of shocked because people want healthy food, home made food.

“You’re not putting it on a grill with loads of oil, it’s healthy, home made food.

“I think I’d probably apply again and fight against it.”

Sarah, who has two children of her own, said she had not noticed children in the town being noticeably larger than in other areas.

She added that the bar previously located on the site of the rejected pizza restaurant had sold burgers and chips.

She said: “I’m shocked really, a lot of food places have closed down which are cafés, I don’t know why.

“Maybe there’s not enough money, but there are a lot of takeaways.”

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’.

And she added that another takeaway on top of the 26 existing in the town would ‘not add anything to the diversity of offer in Bacup’.

Two public comments also objected to the plans, with residents objecting to the planned 4pm to 10pm opening times.

A comment from the town’s former mayor Barbara Ashworth said the hours of opening would “do nothing to enhance the desire for the town centre to be vibrant all day and evening.”

Peter Brown, also objecting, said the opening times would ‘drive away the older law abiding resident’ due to ‘the anti social behaviour of the youths who hang around and intimidate everyone’.

Council rules state that takeaways near to secondary schools should restrict their opening hours around lunchtimes and school closing times.

However, a comment from Growth Lancashire Ltd raised no objections, saying the plans would cause ‘no discernible level of harm or loss of significance’.

In the plans, Woody’s had said: “We are like no other takeaway.

“We don’t do dirty oil, we don’t do huge extractions, late nights and delivery drivers pulling up on our kerb.

“We don’t use lots of salt and sugar and we don’t buy in cheap frozen produce to fry.

“We buy direct from our market in Todmorden and Hebden Bridge… always have and always will.

“We intend to buy direct from Bacup Market too as per our model of supporting local markets and businesses.

“We are different, we are a credit to our community and they love us. Please allow us to come to Bacup and carry on our journey.”

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”.

Rossendale Borough Council was contacted for comment.