COUNCILLORS opted today to visit a Fenland kebab shop to decide whether a woman campaigning to block its expansion lives close enough to object.

Victoria Gillick, who lives opposite Best Kebab in Nene Quay, Wisbech, has compiled a 12-log dossier detailing the “violent and noisy disturbances” in and around the shop over the last seven months.

The campaigner spent more than 50 nights sleeping in an unheated studio in her house to keep an eagle-eyed watch on the store from August 6 last year to March 19 this year.

The “Gillick Dossier” was presented to Fenland District Council Licensing Committee in a bid to block kebab shop owner Jack Dennis’ application to vary the licence and make alcohol more readily available.

But Justin Shale, representing Mr Dennis, told councillors that it was arguable whether Mrs Gillick lived in the “vicinity” as her house was on the other side of the River Nene. Councillors elected to visit the site to decide whether Mrs Gillick’s objections could be considered.

Mrs Gillick told the committee: “Those who live in Wisbech know that the Nene Quay is not very far from the other side of the river.

“The disturbance caused to my family is not a matter of distance. We are not objecting to Best Kebab as a premises, we are objecting to noise in the early hours of the morning.”

Mrs Gillick - who 10 years ago fought through the House of Lords to halt the provision of contraception to teenage girls - claimed disturbances from Best Kebab often continued until 4am.

The mother of 10 said that police had been called on at least seven occasions to deal with violent disturbances around the shop on weekends.

She said: “I had seven months of every weekend - apart from Christmas - sleeping on the sofa to monitor the place. It was so cold in the room I was scraping ice off the inside of the windows.

“It would be a tremendous blow if this went through. It would mean another summer of deeply disturbed sleep over the weekends.”