Doner leave me: BBQ King serves its last supper
“WITH HINDSIGHT, the council shouldn’t have given consent for the kebab van to use the car park.”
Safeguarding concerns have been cited by Wokingham Borough Council as the reason that a popular institution can no longer serve late-night food from a van in a youth centre car park.
Last week, Wokingham.Today revealed that the licensing subcommittee of the council had ruled that BBQ King van could not have its street trading consent license renewed, following an appeal hearing on Thursday, June 11.
The van has been a fixture of Reading Road for nearly 30 years, and, in 2016, moved from a site near the bus stop opposite St Paul’s Church into the car park of the Wokingham Youth and Community Centre.
Although the van traded on Wednesday and Thursday evenings, it has now relocated to King Street Lane inWinnersh, and taking orders via online food ordering company Just Eat.
Wokingham Borough Council held part of the hearing behind closed doors, and said in a statement that the refusal followed concerns raised by both “police and child welfare experts” about the van’s location.
It says that the council’s children safeguarding team established the car park wasn’t tenable – a position echoed by police which raised its safeguarding concerns at the appeal hearing.
Issues raised included public urination and drunken customers – both of which were disputed by van owner Kenan Mursaloglu.
“A youth centre used by young people into the evening is obviously not the right place for a late-night burger and kebab van, so we’ve had to stop it operating there,” said executive member for environment and leisure, Cllr Parry Batth.
“With hindsight, the council shouldn’t have given consent to use the car park.
“I wasn’t involved back then yet my understanding is that we did so to help the business after the van’s previous location was a danger to traffic.
“But all businesses need to operate in the right place and I think it’s fair to say a late-night burger and kebab van has more constraints than others.
“It may be possible to find an alternative location, but it needs to be suitable for this sort of businesses.”
The ward councillor said that she is ‘ deeply disappointed’ at the decision to remove its street trading license.
Cllr Imogen Shepherd-DuBey, who represents Emmbrook ward on the council, said that she felt she should have been allowed to be part of the appeal process.
“I’m deeply disappointed about what has happened. I had hoped the council would have given him a bit more time to sort it out,” she said. “He has four staff and will probably have to lay them off.
“I’m very unhappy with Wokingham Borough Council for shutting it down that quickly and I’m unhappy that part of the meeting was behind closed doors and that I was not allowed to be in it.
“I’ve got some issues with that as a councillor – I was excluded.”
She added: “I’m not confident that the appeal has been dealt with fairly.”
Cllr Shepherd-DuBey said that she understood that Mr Mursaloglu had permission to trade this evening, but beyond that was uncertain.
With no permission to trade from the car park, he needs to find a new location, but this might not be easy.
“I have very little hope that Mr Mursaloglu will find anywhere else.”
Some residents have suggested that the van should have a pitch in Market Place, but Cllr Shepherd-DuBey wasn’t sure it would be that straightforward. The land is owned by the borough council but managed by the town council.
“We had planned for Market Place to be open in the evenings, but that is not possible at this point in time,” she explained.
“He would be welcome to come and join with the daytime market traders.”
She added that there were health and safety implications if he traded late night, including access to facilities such as water and toilets.
“It’s not insurmountable,” she said. “Wokingham Town Council is open to a conversation.”
And Cllr Shepherd-DuBey added: “The van is very popular, I’ve never known any trouble there. Mr Mursaloglu is very well liked by young adults and teenagers.”