A cafe owner has been told to remove patriotic artwork from her wall after an anonymous complaint to the local council.
Nina Stevenson, 52, who runs Cookie Corner in New Milton, Hampshire, has had artwork painted on the sandwich shop’s outside wall for years.
But New Forest District Council told her the pictures of the Union Jack and St George’s Cross breached advertising planning rules.
It is understood the images triggered the complaint that it was a ‘racial slur’. The council contacted Nina telling her she must either remove or apply for planning permission to keep them.
Nina said two other signs below the images reported to the council, which show a hungry customer and shark sharing a giant baguette, have been there for four years with no issue.
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She said: ‘The council called me and said I needed planning permission for any picture on the side of my building.
‘I told them I have had the picture of a shark eating a baguette for four years and they have never had an issue with that.
‘She said that hadn’t been brought to their attention before and that any pictures on the side of the wall had to have planning permission. She said a complaint had been made.
‘We have the same picture of the lion and Union Jack on our sandwich van that drives around industrial estates.
‘One woman recently told our driver that it was a racial slur, I bet it is the same person who has complained now.’
Nina continued: ‘It is utterly ridiculous. I am proud to be British. This is our country’s flag, it should be celebrated not censored.
‘I am not giving in and I won’t take them down or remove them. They will have to take me to court. I know I am in the right.
‘We have been here for 24 years, I can’t believe we have reached this point.’
The four images, which were created by a professional signwriter, appear in filled-in windows to the side of the sandwich shop.
In an email to Nina, a planning enforcement officer at the council told her the two lower adverts of the shark and a baguette may be okay as they refer to activity at the premises – but that the upper two patriotic adverts do not.
New Forest District Council told Metro: ‘Following a complaint received from a member of the public, we investigated and found that two advertisements were being displayed, consisting of adhesive vinyl applied externally to ground floor windows of a business premises.
‘These advertisements do not fall within the parameters of deemed consent under the Town and Country Planning (Control of Advertisements) (England) Regulations 2007 and were therefore unauthorised.
‘In accordance with our Local Enforcement Plan, the proprietor was requested to remove the unauthorised advertisements or seek advertisement consent retrospectively for their continued display.’