Chigwell residents are urging a celebrity hotspot and restaurant to clean up customers’ takeaway litter.

Fed up residents are calling for Sheesh Chigwell and Epping Forest District Council to address the issues of the restaurant’s customers’ continual littering over lockdown.

The Chigwell Residents Association (CRA) posted a tweet yesterday morning (Monday, March 8) with images showing litter Sheesh customers had dumped across the town.

The restaurant, known for its exceptional Turkish cuisine and its celebrity clientele, with previous guests including the cast of TOWIE, Little Mix, Harry Styles, and even Marlon Brando, only started operating as a take-away service at the start of the pandemic, in accordance with government regulations.

CRA Chair Celina Jefcoate said: “Sheesh always claims to be part of Chigwell and that makes me think then you’ve got to put the effort in to make sure Chigwell stays how everyone would want it to be.

“Don’t just to use the name and don’t think you don’t have to care about what Chigwell looks like in the cold light of day”.

The group's tweet claimed Sheesh had said the litter was “not their problem” and so it questioned whether the council would take action instead.

Whilst an Epping Forest District council representative did reply to the tweet confirming that its environment department were aware of the situation, Ms. Jefcoate said she believed it was the restaurant’s duty to clean up the litter.

She said: “It is not the council dropping the litter or making it.

“The council could send out people to pick up the litter, which they do, [but] that’s paid for by council tax payers, so we’re paying to clean up after Sheesh customers”.

Ms. Jefcoate helped other CRA members collect litter on Sunday afternoon and claimed to have collected five bin bags worth of Sheesh take-away boxes.

She returned the filled bin bags to the restaurant so they could dispose of it, which were graciously accepted by a restaurant staff member.

Ms Jefcoate argued that the restaurant had a duty to collect and dispose of the rubbish as the the community’s council tax should not be used to pay for their “commercial waste”.

A Sheesh staff member responded to the CRA’s complaints, stating that the restaurant does pick up litter in the area twice a day.

They explained that two staff members usually collected litter from around the takeaway at after it closes at 9pm.

One staff member is also sent to check for litter in the surrounding area in the morning, travelling via vehicle to scour more of the town.

Although the staff member denied CRA’s allegations that the restaurant had said the litter “wasn’t their problem”, they also questioned whether they should be held accountable for their customer’s actions.

They said: “At the moment, restaurants are trying to survive a very difficult time, we can’t be responsible [for what customers do].

“[The littering] is a shame but it is not going to go on forever – the restaurant will be open again in five weeks and after that, I don’t want to see another takeaway box myself!”.

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