A fish and chip shop in the Black Isle has appealed to the Scottish Government after the Highland Council refused planning permission for a Batman-style call light.
Jaki Pickett applied for permission use her powerful spotlight to promote her takeaway in the village of Muir of Ord.
However, council planners refused to give Miss Pickett consent, claiming the beam would cause light pollution in the rural area.
Miss Pickett, owner of Jaki Fish and Chip Shop, was going to use the light alongside her newly designed deep-fried superhero called “Batterman” as part of a drive to bring in more customers.
Similar to that seen the Batman movies and comics, Miss Pickett wanted to send the light 15 miles into the sky with coloured beams to alert customers to offers.
She received permission from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) for a trial use of the lights a few months ago, with no objection raised.
The rejection from the council said the proposal would have had “an unacceptable impact” by introducing “intrusive” artificial light pollution into non-commercial and rural areas.
“There are only two applications like this in whole of UK and the other is a council themselves in Wales.
“I have a 6ft Batterman figure nearly complete to be positioned outside my shop as we are introducing a comic magazine to put inside our goodie bag we already have for the kids, that’s why my staff have comic characters to feature in it.”
She added: “I had this planned since last year and I was shown a light on a trial basis one evening and it was just what I was looking for so I purchased the light as no planning was required.
“But out of respect I had got in touch with the council who said I required advertising consent.
“That’s why I have not used the light yet as I wanted to make sure I had complied with the regulations while others used there promotional lights.
“I’m just disappointed that the council have used them at Kessock Bridge and Inverness Castle where the lights can be seen from the same areas as my light would be seen but seems to be rules for some and not for others.”
Discussing the appeal with the Scottish Government, Miss Pickett said: “I’m being positive but the grey area allows it to be used for events as other business have been using them plus the council themselves so ideally I will use it to launch Batterman and for events as such.”