A furious sleep-deprived man loses ongoing feud with a market trader following a town hall ruling yesterday.

The livid resident of Roscoe Street, in Whitecross Market, wrote to Islington Council saying he had been woken up every day for two years by “a ridiculously loud alarm clock that you can never switch off” as the stall set up in the mornings.

His anger was targeted towards the Holmesbake pie stall, whose staff would often cause a racket like “a person screaming at the top their lungs every ten minutes” when they unloaded at 7am – despite not having a license to do so until 7.30am.

The 7.30am start was agreed as a compromise between the two parties, but following yesterday’s licensing committee meeting, Holmesbake can now get going even earlier at 7am.

Mr Holmes, the applicant, said he needed to set up at that time to be ready to serve customers at lunchtime.

In a letter to the council, the disgruntled neighbour wrote: “For the past two years or so, the quality of my life has been severely affected by the arrival of a pie and mash stall outside of my flat.

“What it amounts to is a ridiculously loud alarm clock that you can never switch off every day.

“Initially they began setting up well before 7am – often it would be 6.30.”

He added: “The noise created by the lift they use on the back of their Luton van, which roughly equates to the sound of a person screaming at the top their lungs every ten minutes or so, does get tedious after you’ve been woken up by it several hundred times.

“Giving them permission to start at 7am is not something I will ever be able to concede.

“Would anyone be able to allow what amounts to the inability to ever sleep past 7 o’clock for the foreseeable future?

“I have little sympathy for a company whose main purpose is to feed investment bankers pies.

“It is the duty of the council to protect residents from situations like this – not enable them to cause even more suffering.”

In his letter – the complainant, who was unable to attend the meeting – also requested that the pie shop be moved closer to council houses in the area as they have double glazing, but the council decided to approve Holmesbake’s application for an earlier license.

Explaining it’s decision, the committee wrote: “Having considered [the complainant’s] representations, the Committee felt that because of the nature of the business and the preparation time involved, the variation to setting up times to 7.00am was not unreasonable in order for the licence holder not to breach the general conditions of the licence in respect of setting up times in Whitecross Market.”