A Labour-run borough council has left red-faced after being told to re-run a consultation after trying to ban ice cream vans from one of its streets. The latest move came after an ice cream vendor of 30 years challenged the decision.
Greenwich council in London spluged £52,000 on legal fees during a failed dispute with ice cream seller Paul St Hilaire Sr, according to the BBC Local Democracy Reporting Service. Bromley Magistrates’ Court ordered the council to re-run its public consultation process and review whether King William Walk, which is moments from Greenwich Park, should be included in its list of streets where ice cream selling is banned. On April 9, during a council cabinet meeting, it was revealed that 16 out of 25 residents and businesses were in favour of the prohibition – nine were against it.
According to the BBC, councillor Pat Slattery, who represents Greenwich Park, which includes King William Walk, backed the ban on itinerant ice cream vendors.
She told the cabinet meeting: “I think it is important to say that the council is not anti-ice cream. There are ice cream vendors in a reasonable spit of where this ice cream van regularly parks up.”
At the cabinet meeting, Woolwich Arsenal councillor Jackie Smith said the only grounds on which the council can stop roaming ice cream traders “is the interest in preventing the obstruction to traffic or undue interference or inconvenience to persons using the street”.
She added: “We have had lots of complaints from lots of residents of King William Walk in the past.”
Azuka Onuorah, interim director of legal services, told the council that if the ban was challenged again, it would remain in place pending the outcome of that legal challenge.
Prior to the cabinet approving the decision to recommend the King William Walk ban to the full council, the council leader Anthony Okereke said: “We are not banning ice creams in Greenwich in any way shape or form. We do love an ice cream, actually.”