In a Lake District village that William Wordsworth called “the loveliest spot that man hath ever found,” a battle is raging – not over poetry or preservation, but over kebabs.
Shwan Khder, a 38-year-old British-Iranian Kurd, wants to open what would be Grasmere’s first-ever takeaway. When he applied in March to turn a disused restaurant into a kebab shop, the Lake District National Park Authority refused planning permission in May, citing concerns that “inconsiderate parking” by customers would affect nearby residents.
“Grasmere villagers oppose Shwan Khder's plan for the first kebab shop, fearing loss of historic charm.”
But Khder has not given up. He has pledged to defy his opponents and run the premises as a restaurant until he can secure planning consent. “It is absolutely unbelievable,” he told The Telegraph. “I have to apply again for a change of use to a takeaway, but for the moment I’m going to run it as a restaurant where customers can eat in or take out. But it won’t be a takeaway.”
The prospect has horrified many in the village, where the thatched cottages and rolling fells have long drawn tourists seeking the Wordsworthian idyll. Julian Hyde, 59, stood behind the counter of Sam Read Bookseller – a shop founded in 1887 – and did not hide his dismay. “That sounds astonishing, really. A kebab shop? In Grasmere?” he said. “It’s appalling. You could then have a fish and chip shop next to it. Then Tesco Express, and so on. I think the knock-on effects would certainly include littering. Already, if you look at the village green in high summer, you could be in the city when the litter gets out of hand.”
John Lowther, 71, has lived in Grasmere since 1984, on a private lane shared with the proposed kebab shop. He runs puzzle retailer Barney’s Newsbox and worries about the traffic. “This lane is going to be a nightmare,” he said. “The kebab shop simply does not fit in with this beautiful village. We have never had fish and chip shops or anything like that. Being a vegan, I wouldn’t go there. A lot of people here live rurally and visitors have hotels, so why would they go either? If they must, they can go to the pub. We don’t need a kebab shop at all.”
Wordsworth, who lived in Grasmere and is buried there, might have seen it as a desecration of the landscape he immortalised. For now, the village waits to see whether Khder’s restaurant plan will hold, or whether the kebabs will come – and with them, the cars and the litter that locals fear will tarnish the “loveliest spot” forever.