IN SPITE of protests, petitions, letters and phone calls, the East Dorset District Council has recently approved a planning application for a large KFC to open in Ferndown, Dorset. Old news? Then read this...

There is a sacrosanct “right of way” issue, so KFC are legally bound to share their entrance with two undertakers, who have their back delivery area next to the restaurant.

Yes, you guessed it – as well as the hearse, it will also include funeral cars, 22ft limousines, even 16-tonne coffin lorries, all in full view of diners.

Bereaved families conducting business and paying their last respects in the chapels of rest will suffer the anguish and indignity of the flower-bedecked hearse, containing their beloved, attempting to manoeuvre a sedate, dignified exit through a tawdry cheap fast-food outlet, with a cartoon image of a grinning Colonel Saunders winking down at them.

The situation will also be distasteful for KFC customers, who may be enjoying a quick meal.

As you’re swinging in for a bite to eat, you’ll be smack in the middle of a funeral cortege.

It will be bad enough for an adult funeral. What if it’s a mother whose lost her baby or there’s been a death of a young child?

It will have a profound effect on families having to watch a little white coffin with hundreds of white flowers, passing through while they are eating their bargain buckets of chicken.

It’s insensitive, gross and disgusting.

CAROL ATKINS, Ringwood Road, Ferndown