Council embroiled in spud war

Oct 12 2006 By Emma Cullwick, Birmingham Mail

IT'S a political hot potato which has caused a stink on the streets of Yardley.

Husband and wife team Ian and Sarah Blinkhorne are lining up against an array of councillors angry over their streetside jacket potato stall.

The politicians are furious the pair failed to secure a trading licence before starting up the stall outside their sun bed shop, Solaro, at Church Road, Yardley.

But the Blinkhornes insist they did everything by the book and claimed the council failed to tell them they needed the document.

Now they have applied for a licence but face a three-week delay while the request goes out for public consultation. The couple said the stand-off had already forced them to lay off two workers.

"We spoke to countless people at the council and no-one told us about this," Mr Blinkhorne said. "We've started a petition and we're determined to get this sorted as soon as possible."

But Coun Barbara Jackson (Lib Dem, Stechford and Yardley North) said she had been inundated with complaints from the Yard-ley Neighbourhood Forum and residents.

And South Yardley counncillors David Osborne, Jim Whorwood and John Hemming also objected to the stall.

"This man has been asking for retrospective permission for almost everything to do with this business," said Coun Osborne (Lib Dem).

"As far as we know, he has done nothing by the book."

A city council spokesman said: "Mr Blinkhorne registered with our food team but did not apply for street trading consent.

"An application for this has now been received and we are doing all we can to process it as quickly as possible, while still allowing for the statutory 21-day public notice period."

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