A PAINTING of a pot of vegan ice cream on a wall has angered conservationists.

The mural of Oatly’s new dessert appeared on the Church Street side of Gelato Gusto’s building in Gardner Street, resulting in concerns from the Brighton Society.

Its existence frustrated members of the society who recently campaigned against a mural advert for Bombay Sapphire gin at the same site.

The society regularly uses its Twitter account to highlight problems with graffiti in the city as well as murals within the North Laine conservation area.

It questioned whether it had planning permission from Brighton and Hove City Council.

The council said that planning permission had not been granted for the mural and that it would be coming down on Monday, December 16. Oatly had offered to remove it by this date and the council said that it was “happy with that”.

Planning applications were submitted in July and November for the mural but the council said that both lacked information and were not “validated”.

Oatly said the wall had been “used for numerous commercial designs over the years”.

The company’s communications manager Linda Nordgren said that it had been advised that it was not standard practice for a council to provide consent.

She said: “In order to follow due diligence, prior to painting the design, our supplier applied to Brighton and Hove City Council via its planning portal.

“Further to the application being received, our supplier also had a verbal conversation with a representative from the council’s planning department. At no point were any concerns or objections raised.

“We took a recommendation from our supplier that this was the standard and correct process but we welcome the council to review and clarify the process.”

She said that the company would look again at its processes before future campaigns.