People and councillors alike had a lot of feelings off their chest (Picture: Liverpool Echo)
American food chain Hooters’ hopes to open in Liverpool, England have been knocked back by councillors.
With its slogan ‘Delightfully Tacky, Yet Unrefined’, the restaurant is known for its orange shorts-wearing wait staff holding plates of beer and chicken wings.
Hooters was eyeing up its second-ever branch in Britain after opening one in Nottingham, sending a licencing application in Water Street earlier this year.
Mayor Joanne Anderson said in February: ‘Hooters has an infamous sexually objectifying and misogynistic environment.’
Liverpool City Councillor Maria Toolan agreed. She launched a petition against the move, saying Hooters is an ‘archaic and chauvinistic brand’.
The restaurant, Toolan added in the petition with nearly 500 signatures, ‘demeans and degrees women and undermines female equality’.
Two Hooters staff did a recruitment drive in Liverpool (Picture: Liverpool Echo)
Hooters’ plans were nevertheless given the go-ahead by councillors, with the bar set to open its doors in the city centre building New Zealand House.
But it was Hooters’ choice of illuminated signs, banners and flags that has thrown a spanner into its plans, Liverpool Echo reported.
The council’s planning department rejected the proposed orange and white decorations described by residents as ‘garish’ and ‘incongruous’.
Councillor Nick Small claimed the signs would ‘belong more in Amsterdam’s Red Light District than Liverpool’s oldest conservation area’.
He added: ‘The proposed signage, banner and flag is bright, gaudy and not within keeping of the character of the area.’
A report from the council said Hooters’ branding ‘would fail to preserve the character and appearance of the application building and Castle Street Conservation Area’.
Council officials hope to continue to work ‘proactively’ on the plans with Hooters.
Metro.co.uk contacted Hooters for comment.
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Councillors weren’t afraid to get their feelings off their chest.