The jolly jingle of a nearby ice cream van is a sure sign of the approach of summer.Yup, in a recession, the best thing Harrow council can think to do is ensure it’s harder for people to earn a living!
But the familiar sound could soon be a thing of the past if council officials have their way.
They are banning ice cream vendors from parking in residential streets for fear they will cause a nuisance or make children fat.
Traders who break the rules are being moved on by police within as little as five minutes.Hah! Try getting them to come out to a burglary that quick!
Earlier this week, officers moved on Kypros Kimonos five minutes after he parked his van in a Harrow street. His customers were brusquely told to go home.There’s a nice Catch 22 – you need a piece of paper to work, but the piece of paper doesn’t officially exist! Sounds oddly familiar!
The 50-year- old from Wembley said: ‘They told me they would arrest me because I did not have a licence to trade.
But I spoke to the council and they told me there is no way I can get one – it does not exist.
‘There are at least 20 ice cream vans on the streets of Harrow, does this mean they all have to go away immediately?
A spokesman for Harrow’s environmental health department said the council had banned vendors from all public land including parks and streets.‘We have been very lax’, have we?
He added: ‘Police are clamping down on it now – we have been very lax. The same applies for hotdog vans, burger vans, any type of vans.’
I wonder, has there been a flood of irate council tax payers demanding to have fewer choices of food vendor in their area? No? Well then, ‘we’ don’t need to worry about it, do ‘we’...?
Or have ‘we’ forgotten that ‘we’ work for us?
Angela Mawle, of the UK Public Health Association, said research was needed to see if a ban on ice cream vans would work.No, Angela, councils should not be thinking about how they can promote healthy communities. That’s not why we have councils.
‘Ice cream is a fattening product, a luxury item. Councils need to start thinking about how they can promote healthy communities,’ she said. ‘However, the priority should be fast food.’
They should be thinking about keeping the streets clean and well maintained, the potholes to a minimum, helping (not hindering) businesses and ensuring the basic services are in place and work promptly.
No one, but no one, pays council tax for this type of council ‘action’...
I was fairly calm till l read this. Then council comments sent my blood from boil to over steaming l just wish had a chance to tell these council idiots exactly what l think about them and their behaviour.
ReplyDeleteI saw this in an oline news 'paper' this morning. I couldn't believe it. Ice cream vans come to where I live once a week at the weekend. One icecream a week isn't going to make the children fat. I haven't seen an obese child in our neighbourhood. Just a few obese mothers.
ReplyDeleteIf there is no licence or they are not being given out then apart from complaining they should carry on. the police are conniving toads in this matter. Where are they when Tommy Asbo is kicking the shit out of your fence or neighbour?
No wonder I am so pissed off and annoyed with life in the UK.
"They should be thinking about keeping the streets clean and well maintained, the potholes to a minimum, helping (not hindering) businesses and ensuring the basic services are in place and work promptly".
ReplyDeleteActually they shouldn't even be doing that. It's the idea that they have any role whatever that keeps them rolling.
The streets should all be in private hands, business should help each other and "basic services" like the provision of shoes, electricty, clothes and sanitation should be provided by free martket actors.
" . . . the council had banned vendors from all public land including parks and streets . ."
ReplyDeleteThe solution is for ice-cream vendors to claim to be "travellers" and to protest that moving them on is "racialist". Harrow Council and Harrow's finest will fall over themselves to find a pitch - preferably one that (for the rest of us) requires planning permission: a public park in Harrow will do nicely.
Yes! Let councils think about how they can promote healthy communities! Super idea! And in 50 years time, one will be able to write:
ReplyDeleteThe jolly jingle of a nearby celery stick van is a sure sign of the approach of summer.
Then again, maybe not.
Vetnurse said...
ReplyDeleteIl just wish had a chance to tell these council idiots exactly what l think about them and their behaviour.I have seen your comments on a few sites, and you appear to be an intelligent, articulate person. I am sure it is NOT beyond your capabilities to get off your ass for ten minutes and post* a bloody letter to said council.
*Mail, or post, is a method for transmitting information and tangible objects, wherein written documents, typically enclosed in envelopes and also small packages are delivered to destinations around the world. Anything sent through the postal system is called mail or post. Von Brandenburg-Preußen.
"The solution is for ice-cream vendors to claim to be "travellers" and to protest that moving them on is "racialist". Harrow Council and Harrow's finest will fall over themselves to find a pitch - preferably one that (for the rest of us) requires planning permission: a public park in Harrow will do nicely."
ReplyDeleteHaving lived there until age 25, I can testify from experience that this is really true. Every year a bunch of about 15-20 caravans would appear, local crime would rocket, violence would ensue. An ex of mine was a lifeguard and threw a bunch of pikey types out of the local pool for trying to drown the other kids, and they decided to exact revenge after her shift ended. If I hadn't turned up when I did it wouldn't have been pretty.
Harrow had a reputation for enormous wastefulness back then (it was the first Tory Council to be 'ratecapped' by the then Tory government, what an accolade), I imagine the fattest thing in the borough is still its massively inflated budget.
Can I please point out that these ice cream sellers do not have a food licence! This means there is no method of hygiene control, no method of checks as to the criminal record of the seller, (pedophile anyone?). They park outside a school and are the cause of traffic problems, kids have accidents crossing the road, and pavements are blocked by kids and parents, not mention the rubbish left behind.
ReplyDeleteI am sure that if you lived, drove down, a road that was blocked with parents picking up the little darlings only to find that your journey home is now slowed down even further by an ice cream van parked where ever it wants you might get a little miffed. If your pride and joy is then ill due to bad hygiene or worse, (pedophile anyone?), I am sure you will be the first to ask why the Police, Council did not do something…….