Plea to be "left alone" as group plans protest outside Chinese restaurant

Happy Valley, a Chinese restaurant on Goodramate, submitted a retrospective application to the City of York Council to alter its signage in January and is set to go out for consultation on April 1.

The restaurant is based in the oldest surviving row of houses in York "built in 1316 in the churchyard of the holy trinity to endow a chantry of the Blessed Virgin Mary".

Junyue Tan, manager of Happy Valley, wrote in his application that “a better attractive restaurant sign attached on the first floor of the front building will bring more customers to the business and give the business better prospects for years”.

Mr Tan also wrote in his application that the sign doesn’t “infect the structure of the whole building” and could be uninstalled within an hour.

The Ghost of William Etty - a campaign group - has objected to the sign and is staging a protest outside the restaurant on April 5 at 12.30pm.

It follows similar objections to the Old York Tea Room when its owners applied for a sign retrospectively.

One of the owners, Tony Vickers, said at the time: “We believe there’s absolutely nothing wrong with what we’ve done.”

He added: “We’re more upset than angry because what we’ve created is beautiful and it seems York agrees.

“Our customers don’t want us to remove it and they’re the ones that pay my bills at the end of the day and keep us going, so we’ve got to listen to them.”

Reacting to The Ghost of William Etty’s latest planned protest, Mr Vickers posted on Facebook: “We are following all guidelines and rules regarding our signage.

“We would just like to be left alone by this handful of people.

“Running a business in York is hard enough without them making it even harder.

“Our appeal is in process and the outcome is yet determined.”