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| Can an ice cream van spoil the view? | Can an ice cream van spoil the view? |
| (21 days later) | |
| Beauty is famously in the eye of the beholder, and for some of the beholders in Alnmouth, the concept doesn't include a sky-blue ice cream van decorated with beige-yellow cones. | Beauty is famously in the eye of the beholder, and for some of the beholders in Alnmouth, the concept doesn't include a sky-blue ice cream van decorated with beige-yellow cones. |
| The beautiful port, selected by the Guardian Northerner as the place to start a new life, Reggie Perrin-style, should that ever be necessary, rose up earlier this year to try to get the 'mobile eyesore' moved on. | The beautiful port, selected by the Guardian Northerner as the place to start a new life, Reggie Perrin-style, should that ever be necessary, rose up earlier this year to try to get the 'mobile eyesore' moved on. |
| Or some of it did, to be accurate. Another 300 people signed a petition saying that Helen Smith and her cornets, choc bars and lollies should be allowed to stay. | Or some of it did, to be accurate. Another 300 people signed a petition saying that Helen Smith and her cornets, choc bars and lollies should be allowed to stay. |
| Their view and Mrs Smith have now prevailed after quite a complicated exercise in local democracy which has gone on since May. That was when the van's street-trading licence, granted in 2010 for a site at the corner of Riverside Road, came up for renewal and Alnmouth parish council objected on grounds including the damage to the view. | Their view and Mrs Smith have now prevailed after quite a complicated exercise in local democracy which has gone on since May. That was when the van's street-trading licence, granted in 2010 for a site at the corner of Riverside Road, came up for renewal and Alnmouth parish council objected on grounds including the damage to the view. |
| The little port and estuary of the river Aln is part of an area of outstanding natural beauty on the Northumberland coast, and the county council accepted the parish's view, as those closest to the van. But Mrs Smith, who has a ten-year-old daughter and a mortgage on her home in Lesbury, decided to put up a fight. | The little port and estuary of the river Aln is part of an area of outstanding natural beauty on the Northumberland coast, and the county council accepted the parish's view, as those closest to the van. But Mrs Smith, who has a ten-year-old daughter and a mortgage on her home in Lesbury, decided to put up a fight. |
| She was incensed at another ground for objection, the van's alleged threat to the viability of the village shop, which she was confident was not the case. Suggestions that the appeal of the van also constituted a threat to children and other pedestrians were also a matter of hard evidence, or lack of it, rather than a subjective view of what constitutes or damages a beautiful view. | She was incensed at another ground for objection, the van's alleged threat to the viability of the village shop, which she was confident was not the case. Suggestions that the appeal of the van also constituted a threat to children and other pedestrians were also a matter of hard evidence, or lack of it, rather than a subjective view of what constitutes or damages a beautiful view. |
| So although she shut up shop and missed the summer – not a bonanza one for ice creams in spite of the hardiness of seaside holidaymakers in the UK – she appealed and has won her case. The county council's licensing sub-committee paid a site visit and councillors also went through the traffic statistics – no accidents – and considered the amount of trade in the village in summer, when the population swells considerably and visitors abound. | So although she shut up shop and missed the summer – not a bonanza one for ice creams in spite of the hardiness of seaside holidaymakers in the UK – she appealed and has won her case. The county council's licensing sub-committee paid a site visit and councillors also went through the traffic statistics – no accidents – and considered the amount of trade in the village in summer, when the population swells considerably and visitors abound. |
| The 'eyesore' side of things also turned out to have references in law as well as art; planning staff advised Mrs Smith that an ice cream van cannot spoil a view unless it is a permanent fixture. This would make a very good entry in a modern version of A.P.Herbert's Misleading Cases, especially if precedent was sought in Oxford's static burger van The Roving Gourmet. The one thing it doesn't do, is rove. | The 'eyesore' side of things also turned out to have references in law as well as art; planning staff advised Mrs Smith that an ice cream van cannot spoil a view unless it is a permanent fixture. This would make a very good entry in a modern version of A.P.Herbert's Misleading Cases, especially if precedent was sought in Oxford's static burger van The Roving Gourmet. The one thing it doesn't do, is rove. |
| Mrs Smith said that she was over the moon, happy to be back and optimistic that the current weather prospects would make up for her 163 lost trading days. | Mrs Smith said that she was over the moon, happy to be back and optimistic that the current weather prospects would make up for her 163 lost trading days. |
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