Taking away food choices in bad taste

TALKING of planning control, sort of, Rossendale Council is looking at trying to curb the number of takeaways here in the borough.

Why is it the council has the power, and passion, to restrict new takeaways opening, but can’t do the same to stop large housing developments on open fields which are clearly opposed by residents?

We do, if data is to be believed, have more takeaways per head of population than almost anywhere else in the country. I can’t help but think the perfect response here is ‘so what?’

Such businesses only survive if there is demand.

Surely competition for said demand is a good thing – it makes the food better, or at least better value. Does limiting the number really make people become more healthy, or does it just make life more profitable for those takeaways which remain?

Rightly, Rawtenstall Market is winning applause for how it has been reinvented. A large part of that reinvention is based on more eateries opening – with the vast majority of custom being, you guessed it, takeaways. Stigmatising hard-working business owners for happening to sell food people want to buy isn’t what a council should be doing.