AFTER 15 years selling ice creams from a car park at L’Ancresse, Michael Hamon has been told he needs permission to keep his van there. Mr Hamon has parked his van on the common opposite the L’Ancresse Bay Hotel since the 1980s.

Now he has had to apply retrospectively to the Environment Department to continue to be able to site it there, but does not know why.

‘I’ve always had a van since 1972, but now we have to apply,’ said Mr Hamon, 55, who runs the business with his wife, Stella, and daughter, Sally.

‘There are getting too many regulations; the mind boggles. All we want to do is run a little family business that serves visitors and locals and helps the economy of Guernsey.

‘It’s my livelihood. I’ve spent 25 years building it up and we are just starting to enjoy the fruits of what we have been working for and now this comes up.’

The family has ice cream vans at four sites island-wide and travels to various shows.

Mr Hamon complained about the regulations facing mobile food vans. He said that if the Environment Department turned him down, he would take his case to a deputy.

‘I used to leave it at L’Ancresse all year round, but now I just park it there during the summer, from March to September, and I am still waiting to hear whether I can leave it there at night,’ he said.

‘It is on wheels and I can tow it away and keep it in my yard, but it would be a real hassle. I would have to disconnect the electrics each day and it is a car park, so spaces get taken up.

‘I just don’t see the point, because it would be there from early in the morning anyway.’

L’Ancresse Commons Council president George Domaille said that he fully supported Mr Hamon.

‘We have had three or four letters from the IDC saying that formal permission is now needed, but I agree with Mr Hamon: there are too many rules.

‘It is a public service and if they are going to cut down on that, it is a poor thing. And the alternative to the ice cream van is not a pretty sight as it hides the recycling bins behind,’ he said.

He added that the department kept referring to Les Clotures Road, when it is in fact La Moye Road.

An Environment Department spokesman said that there had been no change in the law in recent years.

‘Technically, it constitutes a movable structure in the law, which requires permission,’ he said.

He could not comment specifically on a current application.