Controversy rages over potential pork pie name for new Melton bypass
Controversy is now raging over whether Melton Mowbray’s new partial bypass should be named after its famous connection to pork pies.
Leicestershire County Council is currently counting the votes from a public survey which gave nine options for the name of the Melton Mowbray Distributor Road, which is due to open this month.
One of of the options – which were selected by council officials for their links to the town’s ‘geography, history and rich heritage’ – is Pork Pie Way.
But that potential name has been criticised by animal rights group, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta), because of its opposition to using meat in food.
The group has written to County Hall suggesting an alternative option for the road should be Vegan Pie Way and it says it would cover the cost of updating road signage if it is chosen.
“Vegan Pie Way would keep the nod to local heritage while swapping out meat, something more people than ever are doing out of concern for animals, the planet, and their own health,” said PETA vice-president of corporate projects, Dawn Carr.
“PETA is encouraging Leicestershire to lead the way with a more compassionate road name that kind tourists everywhere would happily take a detour for.”
Brockleby’s Pies, which makes Melton pork pies at its town shop and its Asfordby Hill HQ, reacted angrily to the challenge to using Pork Pie Way.
A spokesperson for the company told the Melton Times: “PETA should keep its nose out of British food and perhaps have a closer look at the lower welfare standards in the USA!!
"Pork Pie Way is the most fitting name for a town that has built its reputation as The Rural Capital of Food and home to the country's most famous type of pie!!”
Matthew O’Callaghan, the organiser of the British Pie Awards and Melton’s programme of food festivals, supports using the town’s pork pie heritage in the MMDR name.
He told the Melton Times: “Pork Pies are an essential part of this town’s history and still provide significant employment in their production as well as the heritage and tourism that surrounds them.
"It is the only pie that has EU Protected Food Name Status.
"If people are still making them and other people buying them, then they deserve to be recognised in the name of one of our most significant roads.”
The issue was even debated on Thursday’s edition of This Morning on ITV1, when guests Janet Street-Porter and Nick Ferrari both ridiculed the stance taken by Peta.
Street-Porter, a journalist and star of TV’s Loose Women, told hosts Ben Shephard and Cat Deeley said: "This is our heritage and Melton Mowbray is the home of the pork pie.”
Ferrari, a radio broadcaster, told the programme: “Utter nonsense – what a load of pork scratchings.”
Melton’s Ye Olde Pork Pie Shoppe’s general manager Richard Griffiths said that naming the road through a public vote ‘is the best way for this to be agreed’.
County council leader Dan Harrison has discounted Peta’s suggestion and pledged the council would select the name of the road from the nine original options.
The deadline for public votes was yesterday (Tuesday) and the county council is expected to reveal the chosen name at the grand opening.