Wokingham Borough Council has acted on safeguarding concerns to stop a late night kebab van operating next to a centre for children and young people.
The BBQ King van had been operating in the Reading Road Youth and Community Centre car park in Wokingham Town.
The van’s owner lost an appeal on 11 June against refusal to grant street trading consent following concerns from both the police and child welfare experts about the van’s location. Issues raised included public urination and drunken customers.
“A youth centre used by young people into the evening is obviously not the right place for a late night burger and kebab van, so we’ve had to stop it operating there,” said executive member for environment and leisure, Cllr Parry Batth. “It may be possible to find an alternative location but it needs to be suitable for this sort of businesses.”
BBQ King was given permission to trade in the car park in 2016 but the council’s children safeguarding team established this wasn’t tenable – a position echoed by police which raised its safeguarding concerns at the appeal hearing.
“With hindsight, the council shouldn’t have given consent to use the car park,” said Cllr Batth. “I wasn’t involved back then yet my understanding is that we did so to help the business after the van’s previous location was a danger to traffic. But all businesses need to operate in the right place and I think it’s fair to say a late-night burger and kebab van has more constraints than others.”
