Rotherham Fish & Chip Shops To Be Closed At Weekends
2016-11-29
Following Jamie Oliver basing his healthy eating campaign in Rotherham a few years ago, it’s perhaps no surprise that the town is taking the lead in a new initiative to tackle the obesity crisis. From next month, Rotherham Council have announced that all Fish and Chip shops in the borough will be compulsorily closed between 11.00pm on Thursday evening and 11.00pm on Sundays.
Council spokesman for the initiative Lee Sharpe, was surprisingly frank when we asked him about the plans this week, “You’ve only got to look at the size of the bloaters queuing up outside the chippies on a Friday night to see where the problem is” he said “There’s no smoke without fire and there’s enough smoke there to block out a small town. We can’t stop them eating themselves to death, but we can make them walk a bit further to fill their fat faces.”
While some have welcomed the move, not everyone is happy. Tracey Chuggin who runs Weightwatchers classes on Friday night at Greasbrough village hall is just one who is opposed to the changes. “It’s just not fair.” she said, “When the girls come here on a Friday night for their weekly weigh-in, some of them haven’t eaten for 48 hours. They like to pile out of here and straight into the chippie for double portions all round. It gives them another week to get it off again. They won’t be able to do that now.”
One man who isn’t complaining is Ken Kiriakos from Ken’s Kebab’s on the High Street. “I’m all in favour of healthy eating, and that’s what I try to promote here at 25 High Street, just next to the alley where BHS used to be, which is open all weekend.” he told us “So this has to be good news all round.”
We tried to contact Jamie Oliver for his comments but a spokesman said he was busy counting his money.
