Roof roo gets to stay

10 September 2002 by
Roof roo gets to stay

Australian restaurateur Ric Hilton has won his battle with council chiefs to keep a straw kangaroo on the roof of his thatched restaurant.

Villagers complained to council officers because Hilton had no planning permission to create the thatch kangaroo at the Royal Essex Cottage restaurant at Godshill, on the Isle of Wight.

Planning officers said the straw marsupial should be taken down because the restaurant was a listed building in a conservation area.

But members of the council's development control committee decided to ignore advice of planning chiefs and let the kangaroo stay.

A delighted Hilton said: "This is a victory for common sense. The roo has become a tourist attraction. Thousands of people have come to see him and would have been devastated if we had been forced to take him down."

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