Council criticised over advice on fast food vans

At the last full council meeting, Cllr Jane Ann Liston questioned what the local authority was doing to prevent the vans from parking outside schools.

She was told that a council committee had the power to keep them away from the gates. However, Cllr Liston says a sheriff overturned North Lanarkshire Council’s van exclusion zones in 2015.

“I am amazed that Fife Council’s education service paid no attention to this judgement and was continuing to issue erroneous advice three years afterwards, apparently not noticing that regulation and licensing was no longer specifying distances from schools when applications were made for hot food takeaway vans. However, now that they do know that civic licensing cannot be used to protect the health of school pupils, it is beholden to the administration to lobby the Scottish Government for the power to do so.”

Fife Council says it will now work with the Scottish Government to promote healthy eating options at school.

Keith Breasley, service manager, said: “We’re working to do everything we can to help our young people – across pirmary and secondary schools – make healthy choices.”