RESIDENTS and business owners have thrown their support behind a popular coffee shop locked in a planning battle with Southend Council.

Dash!, one of Leigh’s most popular coffee shops, has been ordered to remove its eye-catching orange signage and awnings which were installed without planning permission.

The business on the corner of Broadway West is now subject to enforcement action, and the community in the area has shown its support for the much-loved coffee shop.

Jamie Fernandez is the owner of Vino Vero, a wine merchants on Leigh Road, and has described the issuing of enforcement action as an “overreaction”.

He said: “Although I can see both sides of the situation, I do think there’s been a bit of an overreaction.

“The whole point of nurturing independent businesses in Leigh is that we have diversity and variation in the town. We need successful independent businesses to prevent the town being full of chain stores.”

According to Southend Council, the newly-installed aluminium shopfront, signs and awnings at Dash!, which also has a branch at the junction of Leigh Road and Mount Avenue, are “causing significant harm” to the street scene in the Leigh Conservation Area.

The council’s development committee, which unanimously decided to issue enforcement action, also heard long queues often formed at a hatch in the frontage where ice cream is served, with councillors comparing it to London’s Piccadilly Circus.

Residents have expressed confusion at the council’s decision to force one of Leigh’s busiest cafes, which boasts five-star reviews, to tear down its new signs.

Sophie Norton, from Leigh, said: “I understand the conservation concerns of some councillors, but I think the reality is that a café like this adds a lot to Leigh and the look is part of its charm.”

Matt Davis often visits both of the business’s locations and hailed it a “real asset to the town”.

He added: “I think it’s a wonderful coffee shop. I’ll quite often pop in for a hot drink and don’t have anything bad to say about it.

“My sons especially always want to visit when we’re going around the shops.”

Dash! now has six months to remove the new signs, shopfront and awnings.