Four months ago I wrote about the unfair treatment doled out to Alvin Wilkinson (Big cover up) who was forced by East Riding Council to cover up his display of pre-packed fruit and veg with uninviting polythene outside his Countdown store in Hornsea, even though other stores around him were free to display even loose fruit and veg.

The food safety officer said he was only responding to a complaint.

Now the council have sent another bloke down to tell him that his display is an ‘obstruction’ and that there had been five anony-mous complaints about what an ‘eyesore’ it is.

It is fairly clearly local rivalry: he was selling 60 punnets of strawberries on a weekend.

The Hull Daily Mail carried the story and showed Alvin standing in front of his display and I could see that there was clearly plenty of room.

But the council is sticking to its mantra: “Public safety has to be a priority.” A spokesman said the display per se wasn’t the problem - it was all the people standing around it making others go in the road to get past!

I suggested that Alvin get a petition up. The council says it won’t take any notice of a petition… but I wonder? The people signing it are those who voted them in.

Topics