A community breakfast club has been asked to consider different ways of cooking its bacon after complaints about the smell.

Bradford Council has written to the breakfast club at the West Bowling Community Centre in Parkside Road, West Bowling, after complaints from a largely Muslim group which is also based at the Council-run centre.

In its letter, the Council's community work team for Bradford South suggested the club could micro-wave its bacon instead of grilling it or use turkey rashers instead.

The move came after a letter of complaint was sent to the centre's manager Paul Bose by the West Bowling Youth Initiative.

The group said after the club used the centre's kitchen on the first floor for its Tuesday and Friday morning cooking sessions, it left a lingering smell of bacon which caused offence.

Pork is seen as an unclean meat by followers of the Islamic religion.

Users of the breakfast club are now considering the options in consultation with the centre's manager.

Nazaket Ali, the youth initiative's project manager, said: "We have said all along that we haven't got a problem with people cooking bacon in the centre. That was made clear in our letter. What we are saying is that one part of the building is used by Muslim workers and that the aroma of cooked bacon lingers into that area.

"Because the majority of the people come to our group from a Muslim background, the bacon smell is offensive to us. It's not a big issue here but it needs to be looked at and resolved."

A Bradford Council spokesman stressed that it had not banned the breakfast club from serving up bacon.

"However, we are trying to be sensitive to the needs of other users of the building and are seeking ways of ensuring groups with different cultural and religious needs can share it," he said.

"The breakfast club provides an invaluable service to local people and we support the work it does to try to meet the needs of the community and it is not our intention to move it to other premises.

"We would ask all users of the building to try to be sensitive to each other's needs and cultural differences and to work together to find a solution."

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