Richard Cussons, who owns Tiffany's, said the planners' refusal to allow another restaurant in the town defied the free market principle.

"Margaret Thatcher would be disgusted," he said. "The Berlin Wall may have come down but communism is alive and well in Knutsford.

"These councillors rule by dictat."

Mr Cussons spoke out after the Knutsford Guardian last week revealed how Viv Allinson had been again thwarted in her bid to turn her King Street clothes shop into a restaurant.

In an exclusive interview, the owner of Vivi's - which has now been on the market for nine months - told the Guardian that she refused to give up and claimed the only buyers interested were restauranteurs. This week Mr Cussons added weight to her argument and demanded that a clause in the local plan, which limits the number of eateries in town, be abolished.

"It outrages me that people who have no stake in her business, who call themselves free traders, can prevent her from opening a restaurant," he said.

But planning committee chairman Moira Taylor defended her colleagues' right to dictate the number of restaurants.

"We've some some good eating places that bring people in, but we do need to keep the retail as well," she said.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.