A SHOPKEEPER who was threatened with council action over shutters to protect the windows on her new business is planning to fight the move.

Georgia Kousoulou, 21, who runs So Glam clothing boutique in Epping High Street, bought the £2,000 pink shutters after hearing of burglaries at other shops in the area.

But Epping Forest District Council have demanded she apply for planning permission and she said that after speaking to planning officials, she believed she would not be successful.

“In a perfect world, you would not need shutters,” she said. “But times are changing and shops are getting broken into.

“All I care about is protecting my business. The shop here before me had its glass smashed three times and they had no stock.

“It’s not going to look very nice all boarded up.”

The latest crime statistics available, published in October, show there were three cases of shop lifting, five burglaries and five cases of anti-social behaviour on or near the High Street.

But shutters have been criticised for making the High Street look “unwelcoming” when they are drawn down and deterring evening window shoppers.

Roger Driscoll, of Severns Field, Epping, said in a letter to the Guardian shortly after So Glam opened: “I have no issue with the pink colour, just the monolithic, industrial and depressive nature of all such shutters.”

Traders in the street suffered smashed windows when Raymond Leadley, 53, of Bower Hill, Epping, went on a rampage with a baseball bat in August.

And in nearby Ongar, two High Street shops were broken into in November.

A district council spokeswoman said: “The shutter box is an alteration to the appearance of the shop front and therefore requires planning permission.

“The box itself is an issue, given the shop is located within a conservation area and should a planning application be submitted, it will be carefully considered.”