A FISHY 'nightmare' has come to the right conclusion for residents say ward councillors in Grays who have expressed their delight that a business will have to remove containers from which it has been selling fish.

Residents in the of Parker Road and London Road area of the town say their lives have been blighted by the smell of fish being sold from the containers.

Earlier this year ward councillors Tony Fish, Jane Pothecary and Martin Kerin, successfully forced a u-turn from council officers and obtained an odour abatement order supposedly forcing the premises owners to stop trading – though near neighbours say the smell problem continued.

Last week the shop applied for retrospective planning permission to keep the containers – saying they would only be used for strong electrical items.

However their argument failed to convince councillors – who heard a plea from Cllr Fish for the application to be rejected and supported it unanimously. In a statement read to the committee Cllr Fish spoke on behalf of himself and Cllrs Kerin and Pothecary, saying the lives of local people had been badly affected by the "extremely unpleasant odour it causes. The retrospective application is totally inappropriate. We urge the committee to refuse this."

Planning officer Nadia had summarised the application by Mr Jude Dicson and said that use of the containers was not considered to be suitable on a permanent basis, saying: "From a planning perspective they are harmful to the appearance of the street scene."

Committee member Steve Taylor spoke about the associated traffic problems on Parker Road – which serves Belmont Castle Primary Academy and committee chair said he fully supported rejection, putting the recommendation to members which was unanimously supported.

The council will now take enforcement action to have the containers removed.

After the meeting Cllrs Fish, Kerin and Pothecary issued a joint statement, saying: "We are delighted at the decision of the planning committee. For over a year now, we have been fighting for our residents to be able to go about their business without the appalling smell of fish.

"We worked hard with our residents to secure an odour abatement order, but the time came when we had to say 'enough is enough.'

"Finally, the nightmare is over, and our residents on Parker Road and London Road can finally enjoy the summer fresh air."