Commuters rally round as their morning coffee is threatened

Coffee van may need planning permission

COUNCIL charges are threatening to strangle a one-woman business providing morning coffee for Hungerford commuters.

Town mayor Martin Crane warned that demands by West Berkshire Council for Rebecca Sheinman, of Carpuccino, to fork out £1,200 for a street traders’ licence could kill off a “valuable asset to the town”.

Ms Sheinman said this week that council chiefs warned she may need planning permission, too – because her van is static for more than 30 minutes each weekday.

She said: “I have a contract with Great Western Railway to park my van on the company’s private property to sell refreshments to commuters.

“I receive no services or utilities from West Berkshire Council but I was advised that, because the public can access me, I am subject to the fee.”

In practice, said Ms Sheinman, her customers are almost exclusively rail commuters whom she serves from 5.30am to 11am each weekday.

Efforts to reach a compromise on the grounds that she was only open part time fell on deaf ears, she said, adding: “I worked very hard to create a modestly successful business and I know commuters have benefitted greatly from the service I offer.

“It’s very distressing to face the possibility I may have to discontinue working at the station due to the financial strain imposed on my business by the district council.”

Mr Crane said he felt the district council was being intransigent and hoped a compromise could still be reached, describing Carpuccino as a “valuable asset to the town”.

Ms Sheinman said: “The licencing officer said that, once she’d finished with me she would hand me over to the council’s planning enforcers to see if I needed to apply for, and pay for, planning permission because my van is static for more than 30 minutes each day.”

However, she added: “I have been quite overwhelmed by the support of so many customers.”

Ms Sheinman has also written to Newbury MP Richard Benyon, pleading with him to intercede on her behalf.

A spokeswoman for West Berkshire Council, Peta Stoddart-Crompton, said: “The council is not in a position to give preferential treatment to one business over another.

“Street trading consent is a requirement for all businesses that can be publicly accessed.

“It is a commitment that should be considered by all traders as part of the overall cost of running a business.

“In order to be fair across the board, it cannot be adapted or waived according to the hours a business chooses to trade or by the location they have elected to trade from.”

In 2009 a mobile snack van boss initially won a battle with West Berkshire Council after it demanded he buy a street traders’ licence despite operating from a private car park.

Newbury magistrates sided with businessman Simon Paine and threw the case out.

However, the council appealed to the High Court and persuaded the judges that the magistrates had got it wrong.

Allowing the council’s appeal, Lord Justice Scott Baker said: “When looking at the definition of ‘street’ it is important to keep in mind the purpose of the legislation.

“Its purpose is so that councils are able to control those who trade, including itinerant traders. It is not surprising, and to be expected, that a locality in which one requires a licence to trade is widely defined, and there is no need to narrow it down.

“The important fact here is the potential [for the public] to go there.”