Ice cream vendor banned from trading
Sat 12 Oct 2024
Muhammed Idrees Mian, who lives on Uxbridge Road in Southall, appeared in Uxbridge County Court in September 2024 after Ealing Council applied a civil injunction to prevent it him from selling ice creams without a valid license.
Mian accepted the terms of the injunction and was ordered to pay £2,500 to cover the council’s legal expenses.
In January 2021, Mr. Mian was prosecuted at Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court for multiple offenses related to illegal street trading, resulting in a fine of more than £2,800.
In May 2023, he was found guilty of the same offense in the same court, resulting in nearly £6,000 in fines and legal fees.
If Mian fails to comply with the new injunction and commits further offenses, he may face imprisonment.
Councillor Paul Driscoll, the council’s cabinet member for climate action, said: "We expect anyone who wants to trade in the borough, and park, to do so legally. But, if you choose to ignore the laws, you can expect to have action taken against you."
Ice cream vans rules
According to regulations, ice cream vans are required to be in constant motion and are prohibited from remaining parked on unrestricted roads for more than 15 minutes at a time. Once the time limit expires, they must relocate and are not permitted to return to the same location for the remainder of the day.
When ice cream vans remain stationary throughout the day, they are essentially fixed-pitch street traders, operating without a license. Under these circumstances, if the vehicle is parked on the footpath or within a controlled parking zone (CPZ) without a permit, it can receive a parking control notice (PCN) for unlawful parking.
Traders may also receive fixed penalty notices (FPNs) for willful obstruction of the highway and may be prosecuted for unlawful street trading.
The issue didn't begin in 2021. It actually started in 2016. Ealing Council was very slow to respond to residents' concerns. How is it possible for an ice cream vendor to park his van on the pavement of the main high street all day, every day? The police don’t even classify this as anti-social behaviour. While the Council claimed to be constantly enforcing regulations and collecting data on parking abuse, there was rarely any visible action that indicated a real difference.
This particular ice cream vendor has been engaging in this behaviour since 2016. It took the Council three years to finally take action in 2019, but Ealing Council seems to have suffered from amnesia and incompetence in the following years.
Unfortunately, fines and penalties are often viewed as a routine business expense by some individuals, disregarding the fact that such behaviour is illegal.
Some ice cream lovers prefer to overlook the lawbreaking, such as unlicensed street trading, illegal parking on footpaths or in controlled parking zones (CPZs), and willful obstruction of the highway
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