Council threatens colourful bar with court over paint job

Celebrity karaoke bar and pizza restaurant, Bunga Bunga, has been threatened with legal action over its new look. The Battersea venue had decided to adopt a bold new look for the Euro 2016 championship, and had painted the outside in the colours of the Italian flag.

According to the Telegraph, the owners said that customers loved the striking new look - and local Christine Hamilton Tweeted that she thought it looked brilliant - but the council were definitely less impressed. After receiving complaints, they have ordered Bunga Bunga to repaint the exterior white.

They have 28 days in which to do so - after which it has threatened legal action.

Bunga Bunga is a celebrity favourite, and has been visited by everyone from The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to Katherine Jenkins, Cara Delevingne and Prince Harry. However, having friends in high places is unlikely to do the restaurant any good.

The owners point out that the building isn't listed, and so technically doesn't need planning permission for a paint job. However, the council argues that it is in a conservation area - and buildings in this sort of area have to preserve the character of the street

The owners told the Daily Mail it was considering appealing against the decision.

Makeover

It is far from the first to face the wrath of a council over a well-intentioned paint job. In February last year we reported on the house in Greenock, Inverclyde, which had been painted a striking shade of yellow - at a cost of £3,000. The council ordered it to be repainted - as it broke local rules on colour.

A year earlier, the owner of a 17th century thatched cottage in a Devon village was ordered to repaint her home - after she painted it a fairly dark shade of pink. The council demanded she repaint it in a lighter shade or face legal action.

Two years earlier Marco Pierre White ran into a similar issue, when he repainted the exterior of a hotel in Laverham. He had opted for a slightly darker shade of pink, which fell outside the rules for the Grade II-listed building, so he had to repaint it.

But one of the most famous incidents was last year, when woman who had been wrangling with her neighbours over planning permission for her Kensington townhouse suddenly decided to paint the outside of the property with red and white stripes. This embroiled her in a second argument with the council as to whether she needed permission for the paint job (it was in a conservation area). In the end, while the legal battle continued, she received permission to demolish the house.