MCDONALD’S customers in the town centre used to be able to look into people’s homes when tucking into a Big Mac or McNuggets - but not anymore.
As the News revealed on Thursday (September 19), the fast-food restaurant’s bosses have installed special glazing on their upper floor windows to block hungry diners’ views of the homes opposite at Ferriby Court.
The frosting was added earlier this week after councillors met with chiefs from Silva Homes and McDonald’s in June.
But neighbours of the eatery have been complaining about the invasion of privacy for several months.
Shelley Burns, who has been living at one of the homes at Ferriby Court for a year, told the News: “It was just horrible.
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“People could just see straight through. I’d get text messages from friends saying ‘I can see you in your kitchen!’
“We spoke to McDonald's, they wouldn’t do anything, we spoke to the council too.
“Nobody wanted to do anything.”
Shelley and her partner have a vast collection of peculiar items in their home and started placing some of them on and above their window after McDonald’s installed its row of seats on the top floor.
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She added: “Although we already had things in the window, it encouraged me to put more things in the window.
“I thought if you’re going to be looking at me, I’m going to give you something to look at.
“People were complaining about my window display and telling me to get some frostings to put in my window!
“Why should I block out my view? It’s peanuts for McDonald’s to pay for the frosting to go across.”
McDonald’s was originally located next to TGI Friday’s on Eagle Lane after The Lexicon opened, but soon relocated a few hundred yards to its current spot on High Street.
Shelley told the News her and her partner had “no idea” there would be a window with seating all along it when the new store opened.
Despite this, she says she is “happy” the new protective screen has been added.
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She continued: “It (the frosting) is thin but anybody who’s actually sat at that bar won’t see us because it is at eye level.
“We’ll see how it goes.
“I’m happy, my partner’s happy with it., but it’s a shame it’s taken 9 months.”
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Councillor Dee Hamilton told the News: “It matches the McDonald’s aesthetic and I think they have done it very sensitively.”
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