TILFORD Parish Council has been fighting a long- running battle over ice cream vans encroaching onto parish council-owned parking and taking trade from the community-owned village shop. But an offer from operator Wayne's Whippy, to cut a deal and make a payment of £1,000 to use the riverside car park at the picturesque spot, had parish councillors in two minds. While the idea of money that could benefit the parish and compensate the shop was tempting, there were fears of making the beauty spot "look like Brighton beach." Tilford Green, a magnet for visitors on hot days, is surrounded by a triangle of roads where trading is prohibited. The parish council has complained in the past about the obstruction caused by vans stopping flauting the ban, only to find the sellers now concentrating on the small car park they own themselves. "They are trading illegally from the car park. We have so far turned a blind eye. The difficulty of enforcement has so far prevented us," said council chairman Lance Trevellyan. He pointed out that even if the council was able to enter into a commercial arrangment, it would have to enter into some sort of tendering process rather than accepting one operator's offer. "And by sanctioning that, very visibly you encourage yet more people to come and would that be something our parishioners would want?" Parish clerk Jeremy Morley referred to it as one more stage towards "a whole new bucket and spade Tilford, totally different to the way it used to be." Eyebrows were raised over the operator's claim that his income from Tilford was three to three-and-a- half thousand pounds a year. Phil Slingsby commented: "There is no doubt Wayne's Whippy is making loads there", and suggested that the payment would be the operator's way of keeping the competition out. "At all hours when the shop is open, we would prefer not to have the ice cream van taking our business from us," confirmed Doug Steele, chairman of the shop's operating committee. But he added that it was probably unfair to stop ice cream sales by others at other times. The council is to ask Waverley to clarify its responsibilities as the licensing authority. "We are suffering from a lack of Waverley enforcement of their own licensing rules. The ultimate solution should be to withdraw their licence," it was commented.
