Snack van owners win appeal over ban on them being near schools

A sheriff has overturned a condition imposed by North Lanarkshire Council’s licensing committee banning snack van operators from being located within 250 metres of local schools.

In Karen McLuskey & Others v North Lanarkshire Council 2015 (as yet unreported), Sheriff Vincent Smith of Hamilton Sheriff Court upheld the pleas-in-law made on behalf of 30 traders over the condition.

Stephen McGowan, Partner and Head of Licensing (Scotland) at TLT LLP, represented the traders at the original hearings and instructed Scott Blair, Advocate, who appeared in relation to the appeal.

McGowan said: "I am delighted for the van owners that the appeal has been upheld. In some cases, the traders have been at their location for three decades and long before the development of nearby schools.

“We argued at the original hearing that the licensing authority was acting outside its powers by using licensing law to achieve another purpose - in this case, to purportedly further a legal duty placed on the local authority to promote healthy school meals - and the Sheriff has certainly taken this point. We also argued that a licensing authority does not have power to consider nutritional standards of food sold by a licensed street trader, which Sheriff Smith has also agreed with.”

McGowan added: “I am aware that a number of other Scottish licensing authorities have similar policies which ban snack vans from being located next to schools. So it may be that these policies will be revisited following this judgment, but it is of course now open to the licensing authority to consider any appeal to the Court of Session."