Business's pink door to stay after repaint row

Jennifer Smith said the pink door had helped her business stand out

A business has been allowed to keep its front door pink days after it was ordered to repaint it to blend in with the rest of the street.

Jennifer Smith, who runs an aesthetics clinic, in Seaham, County Durham, said she got a letter from the council last week asking her to paint the door grey or black to fit in with the town's conservation area.

She said customers were left "really angry" and a repaint would have cost hundreds of pounds.

However, she said she had now received a letter from Durham County Council saying it had investigated and the pink door could stay.

"Everyone loves the pink door," Ms Smith said.

"I'm pleased that I had the backing from the local public and their support."

'It's fabulous'

Ms Smith has been running her business in North Terrace since 2019.

She said she repainted the frontage to help her salon stand out and the pink door had helped bring in customers.

"I was annoyed, because there's other businesses along the front that have their own colours and I didn't know why it was mine that was being targeted out of the whole street," she said.

"If they wanted us to all have black and grey, it wouldn't look nice.

"As a seaside town, I think it should be colourful."

Customer Kate Coates said the pink door was in keeping with the street

Customer Kate Coates said she thought asking for the door to get a different colour was "really unfair" and "petty".

"It looks lovely. It's not tacky. It's in keeping with the whole street. I was really upset for her," she said.

"I could understand if it looked awful, but she's done it really nice, spent a lot of money on it."

Seaham resident Dorothy Nicholson said: "It's not in your face. It's refreshing. It's fabulous."

John Robson added: "I think it fits in with the area. I love it."

Dorothy Nicholson and John Robson love the pink door

Stephen Reed, the council's planning manager, said a complaint had been received about Ms Smith's property and had been investigated "as we would with any other alleged breach of planning regulation".

"After working closely with Ms Smith and listening to her concerns, we are pleased to confirm that the painted door can remain.

"We're happy this has come to a positive conclusion," he said.