It's my only income': Home baker battles Newham Council over cake business ban

"A baker is fighting Newham Council's order to stop running her business from her home. Fatima Yusuf says she has been running her cake business, The Bakeress, since 2010 from her home kitchen in Claremont Road, Forest Gate, where she lives with her mum. But now the council has ordered her to stop as she doesn't have planning permission. Fatima said the business is my livelihood, my only income."

"The council ordered Fatima to stop using her home as a bakery in a planning enforcement notice issued in August. Planning law means planning permission needs to be sought to change the use of a property, even if the building itself hasn't been altered. It followed a complaint from a neighbour and an inspection from council planning officers. The notice said the introduction of a commercial use in a residential street which is located outside of any town or local centre was unauthorised."

"It added that this undermined the success of nearby designated centres. The Newham Council notice also said that the business caused unacceptable harm to neighbours by reason of increased noise and disturbance from the bakery. Fatima said her business had never caused problems with neighbours before. She said: We never make noise, there's no car pollution. She has also collected signatures from 16 of her neighbours saying her business has never caused noise pollution or parking problems."

Fatima Yusuf has run The Bakeress, a cake business, from her home kitchen in Claremont Road, Forest Gate, since 2010 and lives with her mother. Newham Council issued a planning enforcement notice in August ordering her to stop because the home bakery lacks planning permission after a neighbour complaint and a council inspection. The notice stated that the commercial use in a residential street outside any town or local centre was unauthorised and harmed nearby designated centres, and that the bakery caused unacceptable noise and disturbance to neighbours. Fatima denies causing problems, gathered 16 neighbour signatures in support, and called the inspection intrusive. A next-door neighbour described them as quiet, pleasant neighbours.

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