A restaurant manager was appalled after a neighbour described the outdoor dining area at his Canterbury home as looking like the Calais Jungle refugee camp.

Felipe da Silva had erected a concrete table with chairs surrounded by a bamboo screen and covered roof at his home in Shaftesbury Road, St Stephen’s – only to receive a letter of complaint from neighbour John Burden.

Mr Burden said that the “garden structure was unsightly from our house”, adding that Mr da Silva had increased its size so that it “now resembles something similar to the ex-Calais Jungle camp!”

“I really couldn’t believe it when he said that,” said Mr da Silva, who works at Zizzi in St Peter’s Street.

“To compare it to the Calais Jungle is quite hurtful. It’s not right. It’s just a place for us to use when we have friends over or want to eat outside.”

Mr da Silva and wife Maria, both 39, and their two children have lived in the house for nine years. The couple came to the UK from Portugal when they were 18.

He added: “We’ve been in England for more of our lives than we have been in Portugal and we’ve never had problems with neighbours before.

“All this seems to be about what Mr and Mrs Burden can see from their house, but then that means they can see our garden. I don’t understand why they care what’s in our garden.

“Mr Burden has said before that he is not happy with it so I went to see from his house. But it’s basically just a seating area with screens on my side and now a roof on top.”

In his letter, Mr Burden, whose house in Beaconsfield Road backs on to the da Silvas’ home, says he has been forced to increase the size of his fence in order to block “our view of your unsightly structure” and asks Mr da Silva for a contribution to the £220 cost of the work.

Mr da Silva says he was taken aback by the request. “I even went to the police to ask about the legality of it,” he said.

“They just said write him a letter saying you won’t pay. And the council have said that I don’t need planning permission.”

The Burdens said they had spoken to the council as well and received the same message, but they declined to speak further to KentOnline's sister paper, the Kentish Gazette.