‘We don’t want your bog-standard food vans’: New vendor told to jazz up his van by Sheffield Council
A new street food vendor has been granted approval to set up shop in one of Sheffield’s busiest squares, but was told to jazz up his van first.
Daniel Teng applied to Sheffield Council to park his van in Tudor Square from 11am to 7pm, Monday to Friday, and from 10am on weekends.
He plans to sell Asian wraps, special crepes and desserts.
Mr Teng said: “I got the idea for it when I went to China with my friends and we tried this crepe and we all said 'this is really good', it was also quick and efficient and so I decided to try and do it here."
The city centre management team said during big events like the Snooker World Championships and Sheffield Doc Fest, when the square is used by media organisations and for event tents, Mr Teng will have to move his business aside.
This condition was set by the council’s licensing committee who also told him the van’s design would need to be ‘very attractive’ to be allowed to sell in the spot.
Councillor George Lindars-Hammond said: “The policy we have includes a very strict guide around it being attractive, it would need to be eye-catching.
“We have turned down things in the past that aren’t of good enough quality or sufficiently attractive - we don’t want your bog-standard food vans.”
Mr Teng, who has not yet bought the van and submitted pictures of a plain one for his application, assured councillors it would be ‘fun and have character’ and said he was excited to get it started.