COUNCIL CALLS CHIME ON THE ICE CREAM VAN JINGLE

Children enjoy ice creams from a traditional van

TRADITIONAL ice cream vans could become a thing of the past after council killjoys branded their cheery chimes as noise pollution.

Strict rules have been introduced in one city which say that vendors can now only play their distinctive jingles for a few seconds at a time.

Ice cream sellers fear the changes will hit their businesses as they struggle to compete in the face of cheap supermarket prices and a washout summer.

Worcester City Council says it introduced the guidelines to make the system fairer.

The rules state that vendors driving around the streets can only sound their chimes for four seconds at a time and must leave at least three minutes between blasts.

Sellers wanting to stay in the same street for a prolonged period have been told they can only sound their jingles every two hours.

Other rules prohibit vendors from playing chimes outside places of worship or schools during lessons, or from playing within sight of another ice cream van.

The rules were drafted by the city’s licensing committee after complaints about the way some traders were operating.

But Dean Clarke, of Dean’s Ices in Worcester, said the guidelines could sound the death knell for ice cream businesses in the city.

He said: “It’s silly and it will just speed up the death of what used to be a great British institution.

“The ice cream van coming round was something that kids used to look forward to. They won’t even have a clue now if there’s one outside.”

Tom Davidson, spokesman and former president of the Ice Cream Alliance, said: “I have never heard of anything so ridiculous.

“When I am out in the van I probably play a minute to let everyone know I am there. The idea that the chimes are causing noise pollution is just complete nonsense.”

Mr Davidson, who has been in the business for more than 40-years, fears that ice cream vans will have disappeared from the streets by 2010.

He said: “The council should just wake up. They are totally out of touch with reality. They are actually trying to spoil what is a great tradition.”

Worcester City councillor Paul Denham branded the new rules a “waste of time” and “frankly unpoliceable”. He said: “Our council is very good at bringing in new rules and regulations but are not very good at actually enforcing them.”

But Andy Fox, senior licensing officer in the city, defended the measures saying they were supposed to help ice cream vendors.

He said: “We have had a number of complaints about one particular trader within the district and because the previous conditions were ambiguous it gave him a way off the hook.

“Now we have incorporated code of practice guidelines into our licensing conditions.

“We are not out to get rid of traders. We just want them to abide by the regulations that are laid down. Hopefully, this is a way forward for everyone.”

It’s silly and it will just speed up the death of what used to be a great British institution

Dean Clarke, of Dean’s Ices in Worcester