A STREET artist has hit out at Southend Council’s “heavy-handed” approach in ordering his mural to be painted over.

Paul Miller, of Beedell Avenue, Westcliff, was asked by friend Kobir Hussain, owner of the Spice Boat shop on London Road in Leigh, to paint a mural on a plain wall outside the store on the corner of Elmsleigh Drive in March.

However, within a few weeks of completion, the council received complaints about the mural and sent a letter to Mr Hussain requesting it be painted over.

It threatened the business with a £2,500 fine because the council considered it an “unauthorised advertisement”.

Mr Miller, 65, said: “I was furious for a number of reasons.

“It took me about three weeks to paint it then, two or three weeks after I finished, I was asked to remove it.

“I’m also worried Kobir has been intimidated by the council and I think it has been heavyhanded.

“I would have been happy to paint out the bit that said ‘Spice Boat’, because I didn’t realise that made it an advert, but Kobir was so upset he wanted it all painted over immediately.

“Ironically, he’d liked it so much I bought some anti-vandal paint and coated it, but it was me who had to paint over it.”

In Tuesday's Echo, a council spokesman said officers had informally advised that consent should either be sought or the mural removed and Mr Hussain had volunteered to remove the mural rather than apply for consent.

However, a copy of the letter seen by the Echo, signed by planning enforcement officer Neil Auger, states that consent from the council would be most unlikely to be granted, before requesting the mural be removed within 14 days or there could be a prosecution with a potential fine of up to £2,500 and £250 per day in the case of a continuing offence.

It added: “Naturally the Council would prefer to receive your co-operation in this matter by removing (painting over) the unauthorised advertisement within the prescribed timescale thus avoiding the possibility of further, legal action.”

Echo:

Kobir Hussain with the whitewashed wall

SPICE Boat owner Kobir Hussain said he wanted to brighten up the area with the mural before he was asked to paint over it.

Mr Hussain said the idea had initially been proposed by some of his customers and, after mulling it over, decided it would be a good way to establish a rapport with the community.

He said: “We asked a lot of our people who come into the shop what they would like to see and they suggested a mural would look really nice, so we talked about it a lot and then I spoke to Paul because I knew he was a genius with his artwork, and he said he could do it.

“I wanted us to be a happy and positive community shop and develop a rapport, because it’s such a fantastic community here, but that’s also why I just painted over it straight away – if someone in the area’s upset about it, I didn’t want a backlash.”

But he also said he wished only to focus on his family and his business when the council made legal threats in their letter.

He said: “They suggested I wouldn’t get permission for the mural even if I applied and said they would take me to court so I just thought I’m not interested.

“I have four fantastic kids and a shop I’ve put my heart and soul into which is thankfully going in the right direction and I don’t want to spend time away from that.”