The boss of a Bradford steak house is in a planning battle which he says could force him to shut the diner losing 20 jobs.

Qaisar Aziz, who co-owns Hanq’s Diner in Rooley Lane with Navinder Hare, was in court this week for breaching an enforcement notice issued by Bradford Council which wants him to remove two extraction flues.

The Council says the flues are visually intrusive, could cause odour problems for nearby residents, and that planning permission was never given for them.

Mr Aziz has appealed to the Planning Inspectorate against the enforcement action and, as a result, the legal proceedings have been adjourned until February but he says the diner’s future remains in doubt.

“If we have to remove the extraction flues then we can’t operate,” he said.

“We can not run a diner without extraction fans. We will have no option but to close and 20 people will lose their jobs.”

Mr Aziz says the diner already had permission for the flues when it was running as a Little Chef so originally he and his partner had not applied for permission when they renewed them.

“All these issues of noise and being next to a residential area were looked at 20 or so years ago when permission was first granted,” he said.

“They should not need to look at these again because they were dealt with in the past. We are not doing anything new with these flues – if anything they are better than the old ones.”

Earlier this year an appeal was allowed over alterations and a screen fence at the diner after the plan was initially turned down by Bradford Council in June – however, the planning inspector did uphold a refusal of permission for air conditioning and a smoking shelter.

Mr Aziz said: “The extraction flues do not make lots of noise. We are right next to the motorway, there’s a 24-hour petrol station and there’s noise from other units. We’ve only got one neighbour and he’s sent in a letter to the Council in our support.”

Ian Horsfall, planning manager at Bradford Council, said: “Mr Aziz erected unauthorised flues on the roof of his business premises.

“He submitted planning applications to retain them but these applications have been refused as the flues were visually detrimental. Their location was also likely to create an odour for nearby residents.”