John Smith
|
Five-year-old's lemonade stall on London street attracts $246 fine
On this side of the globe the "great" British summer is upon us.
It's a rare collection of weeks, occasionally months, when the English weather is pleasant enough to actually spend time outside.
Andre Spicer, a New Zealander with an Australian partner, wanted to use the long London days to encourage his five-year-old daughter's entrepreneurial side.
"We'd been to a school fete with lots of stalls and she thought, 'Ok, I'd love to have a stall myself'," Mr Spicer said.
"First, she said she'd like to sell toys and I was hoping she'd declutter the house a little bit, but we ultimately settled on lemonade."
After a shopping trip, some online recipe searches and a 30-minute stint with a blender, the pair was ready to go.
They took four jugs of lemonade and a handmade sign to the end of their street.
A music festival was on nearby and dozens of people were streaming past.
"People smiled at us and within a minute we had our first customer," Mr Spicer said.
"We went through the lemonade quite quickly."
It was hardly a grand money making exercise.
They were charging just 50p ($0.82) for a small cup and 1 pound ($1.64) for a big one.
But then the long arm of the law intervened.
"We were on the fourth jug, when we are approached by four enforcement officers from the local council," Mr Spicer said.
"I expected at the very worst they might say to me, 'Okay, the law says this and unfortunately we're going to have to ask you to pack up and go home', which I would have been fine with.
"But they had a kind of legalistic script that they had to read through and then they gave us a fine of 150 pounds [$246] for operating without a permit.
The five-year-old burst into tears, assuming she had done something wrong, and the pair was forced to pack up and go home.
They watched a movie, calmed down and thought about what had happened.
"Perhaps I should have known some sort of permit was required, but we certainly didn't pose any sort of hazard," Mr Spicer explained.http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-22/five-year-olds-lemonade-stall-attracts-$25...Another example of appalling bureaucracy they should be encouraging this girl, not punishing her for showing initiative.
|