Whitby residents hit out at plans for a 22nd chip shop in the seaside town 

With visitors known to queue in the streets waiting for a table, it is fair to say that fish and chips are taken very seriously in Whitby.

But it seems locals in Britain’s unofficial chip shop capital have had enough of the frying frenzy.

When news spread that the town’s three-storey NatWest bank building was to be converted into a 180-seat fish and chip chain restaurant, a rebellion ensued.

Residents were so angry that another takeaway was to open that 486 members of the small community wrote to Scarborough Council to object to the plans.

They complained that ‘Whitby did not need another fish and chip shop’ and there was a demand for ‘something different’.

The new restaurant, which has been approved by the council, will compete with 21 other chip shops in the town centre including the famed Magpie Cafe, which opened in 1939, and is renowned for its queues. It will also come up against Trenchers, which was named Best in the UK in its category in January. If that was not enough, other seafood restaurants in the area include The Star Inn The Harbour, opened by Michelin-starred chef Andrew Pern in 2017.

Letters to the local newspaper revealed how residents are desperate for new amenities in the North Yorkshire seaside town.

Michael Kilpatrick wrote: ‘At least give us something that will enhance the town... not another chippy, for cod’s hake!’

Margaret Hall, one of the hundreds who wrote to the council, described the plans for the bank building as an ‘insult’ to the town. She added: ‘The very last thing Whitby is in need of is another fish and chip shop. The universal reaction from by far the majority of people on hearing what the NatWest might become is a resounding, “say it isn’t so”.’

But with no legal reason to refuse the ‘change of use’ application for the building, the scheme was given the go-ahead last month without even a vote by councillors.