A fish and chip shop is as lucky as its name after it was let off for not getting the correct planning permission for a decade.

The owners of Lucky Fish Bar and Chinese takeaway, on Rodbourne Road, will face no penalty after it was given change of use consent to operate as a takeaway, despite operating as such without the relevant permission for at least ten years.

Hoi Lee who runs the chippy and Chinese takeaway applied in November for the change of use from permission from a restaurant to a takeaway.

It has never had planning consent for the business, but there was a consent for a sit-down restaurant.

Mr Lee’s application said: “Existing use of land has been occurring without planning permission; when leasing this property from 2004, it was limited to use as a restaurant/ café. Now due to selling the lease an update to consent for hot food takeaway is required.”

It added: “The use began more than 10 years before the date of this application.”

Rodbourne Parish Council objected to the change of use, even though it the current use, saying: “The change in nature from a café / restaurant to a takeaway will potentially increase the trip rate from vehicles visiting the site and therefore could have issues for safety and traffic congestion on Rodbourne Road.”

But as the borough council’s planning officer’s report showed, there was little option but to approve the change of use.

The report said: “In the case of any other breach of planning control, no enforcement action may be taken after the end of the period of ten years beginning with the date of the breach.”

And Mr Lee provided plenty of evidence of the use of the building as a takeaway stretching back longer than a decade.

The report said: “The only consideration for the Local Planning is whether there is sufficient evidence to prove 'on the balance of probability' that the application site has been in use for a period of 10 years or more as a hot food takeaway.

“The applicants have submitted a floor plan showing the ground floor unit laid as a hot food takeaway with counter and customer area at front, and energy bills from February 2012 to October 2022 have been submitted which state the address as “Lucky Fish Bar”.

"Finally the council’s property records include several related to a hot food takeaway use, including a record opened in March 2012 with notes on Food Hygiene Rating inspections for “Lucky Fish Bar” take-away.”