Article: Restaurant shanghaied into losing its lanterns

When Jason Han moved to Somerset to open a new Chinese restaurant, he proudly decked it out with his country's traditional oriental lanterns to mark his arrival in the West.

But just weeks after opening the Shang Hai eatery in the centre of Bridgwater, Mr Han received a chilly welcome from planning chiefs - who told him to take the decorations down because they did not fit in with the rest of the town.

Council bosses said the new restaurant lay within a very strict "conservation area" and without planning permission they would have to come off the front of the restaurant.

A disappointed Mr Han and his staff reluctantly climbed a ladder and took the decorative globe-shaped lanterns down.

In a ...

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