BASINGSTOKE council has lifted a "pizzas only" rule on a take-away in Whitchurch - despite objections from residents and the town council.

Seven people had signed a petition asking the council's development control committee not to lift a condition that Top Pizza, in Church Street, Whitchurch, should only sell pizzas.

But owner Aftab Khan got his customers to sign a petition supporting him - and presented the committee with the 144 signatures asking that he be allowed to also sell burgers and kebabs.

The committee voted to allow him to expand the range of food sold at the shop, on condition that he installs a powerful extractor system to reduce the effect of cooking smells on his neighbours.

Antique dealer Bill Judge, whose shop is next door to the take-away, appealed to the committee not to lift the "pizzas only" condition, imposed when the shop opened two years ago.

"Permission was given for pizzas and not other products because pizzas do not give off strong cooking smells," he said.

"But now doner kebabs, chicken kebabs, beef burgers, onion rings and various other obnoxious products are being sold there.

"He is breaching this planning condition - it is now a general fast-food outlet.

"My windows are 12 feet from the back of this take-away and the cooking smells are absolutely awful. I can't open them."

Mr Khan said that he had only taken over the shop six months ago and was just trying to make a living.

"If this is not allowed it will mean closing down my business," he said.

"My predecessor could not live by selling just pizzas.

"I don't want to offend anybody with these cooking smells. I can't see that there is an issue once the extraction system is installed. I will do anything to solve this."

Director of planning and transport Tony Curtis told members that to restrict a take-away food shop to only a single product was an unreasonable imposition. In any case, a shop selling one type of food would also be allowed to sell ancillary foods.

When the "pizzas only" condition was imposed, councillors had not been aware that different toppings could produce different cooking smells.

Even under the condition, Mr Khan could sell curry-topped pizzas, if he wished.