Butcher gets noise abatement order 'for chopping his meat too loudly'

But its days may be numbered after the shop's neighbours complained that the meat is being chopped too loudly.

Simon Keighley starts work at 5.30am as he needs at least two hours to prepare the meat for the day's first deliveries to restaurants at 7.30am.

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However, Bradford Council has told him the noise from the chopping is a "sound nuisance" which is waking the neighbours.

Officials told him he can only start chopping at 8am - and he must finish by 6pm.

Mr Keighley said: "We make everything fresh so we need to prepare burgers and kebabs.

"Orders have to be ready for delivery by 7.30am.

"They take two hours to get ready."

Keighley's Butchers was opened in 1875 by Mr Keighley's great-great-grandfather.

Apart from a six-year break, it has been in business ever since.

It moved from another location to its premises in the centre of the suburb of Thackley seven months ago.

But last month the tenants of the flat above the shop started to complain that the chopping was waking them up.

When the noise continued, the council was called in to investigate.

Officials told Mr Keighley he faced a noise abatement notice.

Mr Keighley said: "They have complained about the sound of chopping, fridge doors opening and closing and the mixing machine.

"The landlady should have told me what she wanted in the first place and the tenants should have been warned that this is what they would have to put up with.

"She promised there would be no restrictions and that's why I signed the lease.

"I wouldn't have taken it on if I had known there was going to be all this hassle.

"Unless a compromise can be reached, the shop may have to close tomorrow, he added.

Paul Binks, environmental health manager at Bradford Council, said: 'We received a complaint from the landlord about the tenant upstairs being disturbed late at night and early in the morning by butchering work.

'We agreed that there was a problem and discussed it with the landlord and butcher.

"We then planned to serve a noise abatement notice.

"We have now received a letter from the butcher saying the landlord asked him to work within normal shop hours. He says he cannot continue on that basis so will have to leave the premises."