A Hooters arrival has sparked a noise row with a family business owner who claims the new restaurant is 'affecting trade'. Paola Paulucci says she may be left with no choice but to move her cooking school if the restaurant does not take 'accountability' for its noise pollution.
The controversial US chain, best known for it's servers in low cut tops, has recently finished developing it's second UK site in Liverpool. The restaurant is due to open later this month and despite not even serving a single customer it is already causing major controversy, reports the Liverpool Echo.
Paola owns Flour Will Fly, and complains that the noise coming from an extractor at the back of New Zealand House, where Hooters is 'interfering with business." In a social media post, the business slammed their new neighbours for disrupting the area.
They wrote: “Hooters switched on a piece of equipment (which we believe is an air extractor) and the noise from this is substantially interfering with the surrounding businesses and residential blocks in the area.
“We have been informed by the manager on site that the equipment is permanent and they will not take any action to reduce the noise it produces. Sadly, if Hooters do not take accountability for the noise pollution it is producing, Flour Will Fly will be forced to move premises, as the noise is directly affecting our ability to offer our guests a relaxing and welcoming atmosphere.”
The social media post continued stating that Flour Will Fly has made an effort to help the US brand ahead of it's opening but they are 'jeopardising' small businesses with their lack of action.
It added:" We have cooperated with Hooters when they needed to place their scaffolding directly opposite our business to safely complete their renovation work, so we demand that the establishment re-considers their latest actions which have been seen as extremely unneighbourly and are jeopardising the small businesses in the area.”
Paola says she has since registered a complaint to Liverpool Council over the noise. She says it would be 'gut-wrenching' to move away, given she had built the brand with her family and late fiance Andy Corkhill, who died last year of cancer.
Despite Flour Will Fly's social media complaints, Rachel Moss, Hooters’ managing director, said the business had done nothing wrong.
She said: “The equipment is legally allowed to be there, we didn’t install it. It’s been there since 2015 and is a lawful, highly regulated piece of equipment. Because Oriel Chambers is a listed building, they have very thin windows.
"We have extremely high standards as a global brand and I had my architect go round to inspect during our initial processes.”
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