Burger van loses its licence after council admits ‘error’

A BURGER van owner has lost a streettrading licence after bungling council bosses forgot to ask themselves if they were happy to give permission.

South Gloucestershire councillors granted the permit to Karen Sealey for her Cheeks Eats mobile fast-food trailer last April – but it wasn’t until seven months later that the local authority’s property team realised they actually owned the land and decided they hadn’t wanted her to set up stall in the first place.

Licensing sub-committee members revoked her licence for Feynman Way, the road leading to Bristol and Bath Science Park in Emersons Green, at a meeting last Wednesday.

Ms Sealey runs her van a quarter of a mile away in Folly Brook Road under a different, previous consent and wanted to set up a second one next to the busy business park. Councillors had approved her application in April 2022 after hearing two people objected on grounds of public nuisance and public safety, while papers to the sub-committee at the time show property services were one of seven South Gloucestershire Council departments contacted during the consultation period but gave no response.

There were no objections.

Ms Sealey told Wednesday’s hearing that she had not yet used the Feynman Way licence but had intended to in future and had put in a lot of work and expense preparing for it. But the panel was told that in November the authority’s property investment services manager wrote to the licensing team to say the road had not been adopted and so was not public highway, and that the council as the landowner did not give permission for street trading there.

Asked how the “error” was made and why it took so long after the sub-committee approved the application in April for a different department to lodge an objection and seek revocation, licensing officer Keith Jones said: “I don’t know, but as a landowner we have to respect the fact they don’t wish Cheeks Eats to operate on their land.”

Ms Sealey told the panel she had done nothing wrong and the fault lay with the council.

“If they had done their investigations correctly at the very start, they’d have realised this was still privately owned council land, I would have been refused at that point and my licence fee would have been refunded,” she said. “This now really stops me expanding my business.”

Mr Jones said: “The South Gloucestershire street trading policy states that the consent may be revoked by the council at any time and the council shall not in any circumstances whatsoever be liable to pay any compensation to the holder in respect of revocation.”

The sub-committee agreed and withdrew Ms Sealey’s licence for Feynman Way, although she can continue trading at Folly Brook Road.

Members also requested the relevant service director be asked to refund her application fee in full.