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A salon owner has hit back at his local council after they told him to remove his window display of a woman sunbathing in a bikini, claiming the image is “offensive.” Jim Cole, 29, owner of Malibu Tanning Lounge in Market Harborough, Leicestershire, had been battling with the local authority over the poster for 18 months. 

The front of his salon is adorned with a large image of a bikini-clad woman, while next to it is a picture of a man in tight boxer shorts. 

Harborough District Council has described them as not “in keeping” with the image of the market town, LeicesterLive reports. Planning officials have now ordered the business owner to take them down. 

Mr Cole filed an appeal in January against the demand – but a planning inspector, after visiting the town, has sided with the council. They described the images as a “detriment” to the character of the market town. 

The inspector stated in the appeal report: “I found that the window graphics, because of their size and siting on all panes of the bay, are highly visible in a prominent location on one of the principal approaches into the square and broadly opposite the entrance to the Commons public car park.

“They would therefore detrimentally affect the character and appearance of the conservation area, equating to harm to the amenity of the area.”

He added the images were “overwhelming to the modest shopfront”,  as they occupied all of the available space within the windows – which was to the “detriment of the host property”.

But Mr Cole said he had spent £700 to install the shopfront, and it would cost him thousands to have it removed and replaced.

He explained this was due to needing to “rip out the front desk and cubicles close to the entrance” alongside the display, as well as having to “completely redesign the interior”.

Mr Cole also claimed he had been told that “just two” people had made the complaint against his shop. He said he was baffled that anyone would think the image was “somehow offensive”, arguing: “It’s the kind of thing you’d see on the cover of any holiday brochure.”

In a silver lining for the beleaguered salon owner, the planning inspector did push back against the council’s claims that Mr Cole’s lighting was an issue. He will, however, still have to remove the images from his storefront after damning report. 

Mr Cole can appeal the decision at the High Court if he wishes.

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