PLANS for an Indian restaurant to move its kitchen following complaints about the smell have been put on hold.

Severn Indian Cuisine, in Bewdley, wants to secure planning permission to build a catering kitchen at the back of the Load Street eatery to combat odour and noise pollution.

Wyre Forest District Council planners deferred the application during a meeting on Tuesday, however, so they could visit the restaurant before making a decision.

The proposal follows complaints about the current extractor fan in an alleyway next to the restaurant, which was once a cafe, surrounded by flats, after residents claimed the smell of cooking was blowing into their homes.

Householder Karen Mayall told planners her daughter, battling a rare kidney disease, was "constantly" woken up by noise due to the restaurant's current set-up, adding the new kitchen and fire door exit would be built underneath her lounge.

She said the current fire exit was constantly used by workers for cigarette breaks and to talk on their mobile phones.

"How would you like a catering kitchen below your lounge in your house where noise and smells will be carrying on until the early hours of the morning?" she said.

"I didn't ask to live above an Indian restaurant but to our disgust the Indian restaurant's seating area was moved below our lounge."

She added "banging, sawing and drilling" during the restaurant's renovation, when it opened about a year ago, made it feel as if they were living under a building site.

"The council needs to see the bigger picture on how it will affect the local residents and our family life.

"The value of our property has decreased because of the Indian restaurant and why should we be driven out of our family home?"

She went on: "How can it be approved when our quality of life has been taken away?"

If plans go-ahead, the kitchen would be moved from the basement to the ground floor, while a door would replace a window to provide the fire escape from the new kitchen area.

Conservative Stephen Clee moved approval of the plans, adding: "The restaurant has been there longer than the new tennants in the dwelling above" but Labour's Christopher Nicholls said he was "concerned" about what Mrs Mayall had said.

"I would like to see this before making a decision so I'm going to move a site visit," he said. Mr Nicholls' amendment was carried.