Food vendors fear new charges will kill their trade

Mobile food vendors have hit out at Bassetlaw District Council's plans to change its street trading policy.

The authority wants to introduce two new licenses – one for mobile street traders and another for the venues that host them.

Vendors will be charged £558 annually for the Mobile Trading Consent while the new Premises Pitch Consent will cost venues £355 a year – which traders fear many venue owners will be unwilling to pay.

The proposed amendments to the policy were approved by the authority's licensing committee on 14 January with the final decision referred to a full council meeting in March.

The council refreshed the policy in September and ran a public consultation.

It said asking traders to be licensed helped to protect the public by monitoring standards such as food hygiene, electrical and gas safety, the right to work in the UK, vehicle safety and ensuring a location was safe to trade from.

Darin Alberry, 54, started his mobile Mexican food business with his wife Maria, after a long career as a fisheries biologist.

He said he had always wanted to run his own catering business and took the plunge in May last year, with the help of Bassetlaw District Council's Business team.

However, he feels unhappy at the council's planned change of policy.

"I took a gamble with starting the business," he said.

"I went and got the information and made an informed decision and built the business on that. But the fact is the information given to me [by the council] has never become true."

Alberry said the proposed changes had forced him to slow down his business around Bassetlaw and look for trade in neighbouring areas.

Stefan Corbinzolu, 49, is another Bassetlaw vendor concerned about the proposed licensing changes.

He said he was worried about the smaller venues that he deals with for his mobile pizza business.

"It's going to effect my business immensely because these little venues that I go to are not going to get a licence for a one-off event," he said.

"It's going to effect people in different ways. We're on edge, because its our livelihoods.

"Every day we are just waiting for the next decision from the council are going to make.

"Until something is put into place permanently I'm just going to carry on doing what I've been doing."

The changes will also have an impact for venues that host mobile traders.

Tom Paterson, 66, is the landlord at The Clumber Inn in Retford, which has hosted mobile vendors in the pub car park for several years.

After attending two council meetings on the proposed changes, he said: "We'll just keep trying and we'll keep fighting them [the council].

"It's totally unfair because we are a community-led pub. This pub relies on the community but the community relies on the pub as well."

"We can't understand where the money is going to go. Is it just a money exercise? We don't know."

Should the amendments be approved by the Full Council on 12 March, a statutory period of consultation will take place before the fees are adopted.

The public has until 27 February to submit any questions for that meeting.

Bassetlaw District Council declined to comment.

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