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Video: Whinmoor's Red Bus Café owner can carry on frying for now
It has been dubbed the sausage standoff and battle of the bacon buttie.
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The teenage owner of the A64 Red Bus Cafe and Leeds City Council are locked in a planning dispute that is much more complex than your good old full English.
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Earlier this year it appeared the iconic cafe on York Road near Seacroft was heading for the scrapheap.
The council had launched a tender system for roadside trading, meaning people working from laybys had to bid for their pitch.
Red Bus owner Vicky Gray lost out on her tender to a rival cafe owner, and it looked as though the famous bus had served its last bacon and egg buttie.
Vicky said she had believed she did not need to pitch as the layby is on private land, owned by a mysterious rural group known as the Trustees of Viscount Pollingtons.
But the council hit back, saying that she did have to bid, as the tender applied to the layby, and not the land the layby is on.
Facing fines of 1,000 a day, Vicky, of Seacroft, Leeds, said she was left with no choice but to hang up her hotplate.
But after taking legal advice, the 17-year-old found a way to carry on frying.
She said: "The solicitor said that if we turned the hatch around, and started serving from the back, we would be OK because that is the private land.
"I was really relieved, this is my livelihood, and my family invested a lot of money in the place."
It is understood that council planners view the situation as a loophole and are looking for a way to take enforcement action against the cafe.
Describing the Red Bus situation as "unique", a council spokesman added: "We will be keeping the matter under review and dialogue with our legal advisors remains open.
"Despite there being a fair and open tendering process to ensure that the public is provided with a better and safer service at this layby, this trader has chosen to ignore the outcome and continues to trade.
"The winning bidders have therefore been prevented from starting up on the site."
Red Bus regulars Brian and Pamela Smith said they were delighted the cafe is not closed.
Lovers of Yorkshire's east coast resorts, they stop at the bus on their way to and from their holiday.
Pamela, of Widnes, said: "Our break wouldn't be the same without this place. We hope it never shuts."
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Tuesday 07 February 2012
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