Environmental health objected over failure to register as a food business
South Gloucestershire Council licensing sub-committee panel member Cllr Ron Hardie (front, left) and panel chairman Cllr Chris Davies (front, right) at the hearing into Grill and Go burger van on Tuesday, May 20(Image: South Gloucestershire Council/Public-i)
A burger van owner has been refused a mobile street-trading licence after failing to register as a food business.
Nicolas Royal, who runs Grill and Go, applied to set up shop across South Gloucestershire.
But the council’s licensing sub-committee rejected his application after environmental health objected on the grounds of public safety.
Mr Royal also failed to respond to numerous phone calls from the local authority’s licensing team that were made to try to encourage him to register as a legal food business, as well as failing to provide evidence of a waste contract, both of which would be necessary before he could start trading, the licensing sub-committee was told.
He did not attend the hearing at Kingswood civic centre on Tuesday, May 20, and his application was thrown out.
Licensing officers told the panel of councillors they were concerned that Mr Royal had not engaged with them and that, because he had applied for a mobile licence to move to any unspecified location in the district for up to an hour at a time, enforcement action would be difficult.
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The applicant wanted permission to sell cooked burgers, sausages, eggs, jacket potatoes, chicken and chips from 7am to 9pm Monday to Wednesday and until 11pm from Thursday to Saturday.
In her objection, South Gloucestershire Council environmental health officer Michelle May wrote: “The business has not registered to operate a food business.
“Therefore, this department objects to this application on the grounds that the business has not registered to sell food or drink and cannot legally do so until registered.”
Senior licensing officer Kevin Barley told the meeting: “It’s a shame the applicant isn’t here today to give more details as to what they propose to do business-wise.
“For us we can only outline what we are doing and how we would have to enforce it working closely with the applicant.
“My concern is that we have communicated with the applicant but they haven’t come back to us with this further information.
“If you grant consent, in terms of what their attitude and behaviour would be towards the licensing authority service in terms of when we do the enforcement side of things, particularly with a mobile consent not being the easiest thing to enforce, there is concern that they are not working in partnership with us.”
Cllr Mike Bell (Labour, Staple Hill & Mangotsfield) said: “As he’s mobile we don’t know the locations within South Gloucestershire he’s going to, and that throws me a bit.”
Mr Barley replied: “That’s the concern – mobile consents are difficult to enforce, knowing where traders are trading, unless they work in partnership with us to let us know what they intend to do, which was the opportunity for the applicant to do that today.
“I share your concern.”
Licensing officer Jasmine Price-Lawson said: “To date no waste contract has been provided by the applicant and he has been sent the hearing notices and the agenda for today’s hearing.
“I tried to contact him during the consultation process numerous times by telephone to encourage him to sign up with the food safety team and received no response.”
She said Mr Royal did respond to an email from her but, despite making several follow-up phone calls, she could not get in contact with him further.
Announcing the decision, panel chairman Cllr Chris Davies (Lib Dem, Thornbury ) said: “The sub-committee remained concerned that Mr Royal had failed to fully engage with the licensing authority throughout the application process and that, despite officer advice, the application was not properly made due to the failure to provide details of a food waste contract and the applicant had not registered his business as a food business in accordance with the regulations.”
There were no objections from any of the other authorities, including the police, public health and highways teams, while Thornbury Town Council also expressed no opposition.
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