London restaurant faces £2.5million ‘proceeds of crime’ fine over kitchen fan installed without council permission

While the title sounds ridiculous, the complaint is over (unpictured) support required for an extraction system which they didn’t get planning permission for, then refused to take down when they were denied permission, then refused to turn up to court for when it got to that point.

Whether they were acting in good faith to stop their kitchens smells going into other peoples houses or not, they didn’t follow the planning rules, and then ignored the council ever since. This has been going on since 2017.

Complete overstep of authority by the council. Although a very different figure, this is the same issue as schools in Wales using a council enforcement mechanism designed for something entirely different to punish citizens.

This is the exact problem with all this sort of legislation and the legal system relying on jurisprudence, there will always be chancers that will test how far they can stretch their authority.

>said it spent £50,000 on the fan system in 2014 after a complaint from a neighbour about cooking smells wafting into their home

50k on a “fan” system, was it from Dyson? It is obviously much more than just a simple fan. If it requires external ducting, then likely it would need planning permission. Suspect structures were altered too as 50k is lot.

All they had to do was engage with the council and they wouldn’t be facing such a large fine.