As you probably know by now, I am retiring, and the question everybody wants to know is “when”. Unfortunately there is not a definitive date. When I say I am retiring, I really mean my two vans are retiring. I will still carry on doing my winter job at Wool Warehouse in Sydenham. My two vans are 42 and 43 years old. My new one (the 42 year old) is already off the road. It is losing oil pressure. To fix it I will have to take the engine apart and recondition the oil pump. As there is only a few weeks left of the summer season, I am not going to do it. This just leaves me with the old van (43 and a half years old). I am hoping it will last me another 4 or 5 weeks until sometime in September. So, the answer to, when do I retire from selling ice creams, is: Anytime between now and the end of September.
Me at Wool Warehouse serving ice creams to my work colleagues during Covid 19 with social distancing, kindly paid for by the boss.
My Story
The other day I was out selling ice creams in my van. A customer asked me why I don’t come down Windmill Road any more. I said “sorry about that, but I am retiring at the end of this season and I am only doing about half my run at the moment.” She then said “we get another van coming down our street now and nobody likes him, if you are retiring the least you could have done was to come down our street to say goodbye.”
She had a good point, it is rude of me to just sneak off without saying goodbye, so, this is my goodbye letter.
In my van at the same time this conversation was taking place was a health inspector from Warwick District Council doing a routine inspection of my van. They usually inspect my vans about every 2 years. She heard the conversation about Windmill Road and asked who was the other ice cream man doing Windmill Road, then she mentioned a name. I said I did not know who it was because vans just come and go and it could be anyone.
Windmill Road late 70’s early 80’s 
After about fifteen minutes the inspector had given the van a thorough inspection, asked me lots of questions, inspected my hygiene and temperature records, tested the hot water for the sink, checked the “use by date” on my fresh ice cream mix, checked the temperature of the freezer and even checked, by removing a panel, that the waste water from the sink is being captured and disposed of properly.
Everything must have been fine because she told me she was going to give me a 5 star rating. I said thank you very much.
I have been a registered trader with Warwick District Council since 1976 and I have had many visits from the health department to make routine inspections over the years and I must say that they have always been very professional and often gave me good advice on how to maintain the high standards they expect me to have so I would like to say thank you to them for the good work they are doing around Leamington.
Right. Back to my goodbye letter. It is going to contain some nice things and some things that people really want to know about. Like, how I get on with the other ice cream men. I wont disappoint you, there has always been conflict between us and I will tell you about some of my encounters.
Nice stuff first: It seems impossible but I have been selling ice creams in Leamington every year since I was a 10 year old van boy. It cost 4 pence for an ice cream (about 2p in new money) a tanner for a 99. I could eat all the broken lollies going, and I did. I was the envy of all my mates.
I passed my driving test when I was 17 years old in August 1974 and then started driving an ice cream van around Leamington.
a model of the D.Di Van I drove when I was 17
In the fifty years that have gone by, I have served ice creams to many customers. Very often people will tell me that I used to be their ice cream man when they were a child and now that they have grown up they are buying ice creams off me for their children.
It is true, I am very lucky, I see children when they are a baby, and then as a toddler when they come to my van with their mum or dad or older sibling. When they get a bit older they come to the van on their own and order their first ice cream off me, it’s a big moment for them and I am very pleased to be part of this experience. When I look up I can see mum or dad watching from an appropriate distance. Soon they are confident enough to come unchaperoned.
It is probably their first transaction, giving someone money and receiving an ice cream for it. At first they have no idea about how money works but gradually they get the hang of it and become quite confident. After a while they get to work out which ice creams they can afford with the money they have got.
Then, when they get really good they can add up and know how much change I am going to give them. Now they are off and flying.
The other day a Mother was ordering an ice cream for her young son, then to his mums amazement the young boy told me that he didn’t want chocolate sauce with his Oreo ice cream. The mother explained to me that he never talks to people and he is quite shy around adults, so she was so pleased with him when he talked to me. As you can imagine, I was very pleased to be part of that moment too.
It’s great, my customers start off at about 3 feet tall and they can’t see above the counter, Then month by month and year by year they get taller. As the kids get older their vocabulary extends and we can have proper conversations.
I have to do a lot of waving.The kids are always waving at me. I have developed a wave that is a mixture between a royal wave and Captain Pugwash. I rest my elbow on the driver doors armrest and sort of pivot my arm and hand about.
I usually see the kids till they get to about their mid teens, then all of a sudden I am not a big thing in their lives anymore and they disappear. I don’t know what happens to them they just seem to vanish. Then a number of years later they pop up somewhere else on my run with a child of there own. They tell their child that I was their ice cream man when they were growing up and this is the very same van.
I think my customers are the best and I am very grateful to everyone of you. It has been a privilege for me to be able to come into your street and to see you come out of your homes to buy ice creams off me. I know that a lot of you are loyal to me and wont buy off other ice cream vans. I get a real buzz from that and I suppose it shows that I must be doing something right.
50 years is a nice round number for me to retire on. I could go on for another few years, but realistically, my vans that I bought new in 1981 and 1982 have done very very well to have lasted this long. They deserve to retire too and they will. I am going to keep them in my garage and will look after them there.
So, from me and my 2 vans, I would like to say a big thank you to all of you, I shall miss you all. The good news is, I am not going anywhere. I shall still see a lot of you when I am out and about shopping or walking or cycling through Leamington, so don’t forget to say hello when you see me.
Here is my story:
I have been selling ice creams from a van in Leamington since I passed my driving test in August 1974, before that I was a van boy for 7 years working in a Mister D. Di van in Leamington which operated from their depo at 420 Stoney Stanton Road Coventry.(Opposite the Red House Pub) My driver Mick Cooper is second from the left in the photo below.
Basically the job envolves travelling around the housing estates from street to street ringing your chimes and selling ice creams to the local residents. You are permitted to ring your chimes between 12noon and 7pm. D.Di’s chimes were very basic they just went Ding Dong, Ding Dong but when I bought my first ice cream van in 1976 I chose Greensleeves as my tune and I have kept the same tune ever since.
There are no set routes that ice cream vans have to follow, you can go anywhere at any time. This can cause friction between the various ice cream vans. My first encounter (of many) with a hostile ice cream van was when I was a van boy aged 11 in 1968. As we entered Bishops Tachbrook to start the estate there was a Walls van just leaving having already done the estate. We turned around as it was pointless trying to sell ice creams after another van had just been around. We caught up with the Walls van along Oakley Wood Road and then he started to drive erratically in front of us, slowing down then speeding up then slowing down again. When we were by where the new School is now, he suddenly slammed his brakes on. Luckily we managed to stop in time. Obviously he was a nut case and fortunately we never saw him again.
Also in 1968, or maybe 1969, a brand spanking new ice cream van (Silvana’s) started doing Leamington. Mick, who I worked for in the D.Di van used to park outside the North Gate of Lockheed on Tachbrook Road at lunch time to catch the workers as they were going back to work after their break. One day the Silvana’s van pulled up and the driver got out, went up to Micks van and pulled Mick by his overall lapels and threatened him with a srewdriver to his throat. Apparently he didn’t like Mick parking there and wanted the pitch for himself. He never got it, and Mick armed himself with a squeezy juice bottle filled with very soapy water which he was going to squirt into the drivers face if he tried it again, he never did.
One way to avoid the competition going on around the streets is to find yourself a nice pitch to sell ice creams from. On Sundays, Mick would leave his run at about 2pm and park his D.Di van outside The Mill Gardens by the bridge and weir till about 5pm this was a good spot with plenty of customers.
When I passed my driving test in 1974 I would park my van up on The Parade but we would be moved on by the Traffic Wardens because there was only half hour parking allowed on most of The Parade and 2 hours by the Pump Room gardens.
In Newbold Terrace there was 2 hour parking up to the entrance to the Jephson Gardens then all day parking from there onwards, so the left hand side of the entrance to the Jephson Gardens was a very good place to sell ice creams from because you will not get moved on.
It’s a free pitch and there ain’t no rules to say who can park there so consequently there were arguments between the ice cream van drivers who all thought it was their pitch and various threats were exchanged. I heard reports that some of them would have a baseball bat for defence behind their drivers seat. I believe that one of the vans had one of his windows smashed in by a wooden bat, and another had his windscreen wiper bent double.
The conflict over the Jephson Gardens pitch came to a dramatic end when in the summer of 1989 somebody went to the house of one of the ice cream men who lived on Radford Road and set fire to his two ice cream vans. One van was written off and the other was badly smoke damaged, luckily the fire did not spread to the house otherwise who knows what might have happened.
Obviously the police got involved at this point. They asked all the ice cream men who held a Street Trading Consent (which was a licence recently issued by Warwick District Council to mobile ice cream traders) to attend a meeting at Leamington Police Station. I think there were about five or six ice cream men there. We were told if we wanted to carry on selling ice creams outside The Jephsons we would have to do it in turns. Obviously this did not effect me as I did not park there but I was asked by one of the traders if I wanted to be included on a rota he was drawing up to park there. I told him, “no thanks” I did not want to associate myself with these people who if they did not like you they would come and set your van on fire in the middle of the night.I did say ”although I did not want to be included on their rota, if one of their vans did my run then I would come down to The Jephsons and park there all day rota or no rota.”
This system worked quite well for a while but with a change of personnel over the years I would find that various ice cream vans would do parts of my round, much to my annoyance.I tolerated it but recently I had the chance to do something about it.
Jack and Jill Lillington fun day 1980’s
The Street Trading Consent issued by Warwick District Council Licensing department had to be renewed every year in October. It would cost about £40. One year in the 2000’s it went up to over £600.
Not all ice cream vans that sell ice creams in Leamington are registered with WDC and therefore save themselves £600 per year. I knew that it was a waste of time me complaining to WDC about any non fee paying ice cream van, as the council would not do anything about them. They would tell me they could not do anything about them because a: they did not know who they were, and b: ice cream vans move around a lot and are hard to track down. (I don’t think they would get a job with Mi5)
After 5 years of complaining to WDC about the unlicenced ice cream van and having to pay over £600 a year to them I told them that I was not going pay anymore and I stopped doing so in 2013.
For 5 years I traded without a licence, then in August 2018 I was happily selling ice creams in Leamington when I was approached by the Head of WDC Licensing department. She asked to see my licence and I showed her the last one I had from 2013 and explained that as no other van on my round bothers to spend £600 on one, then that is why I have not got one. She said “I had committed an offence and would be dealt with accordingly.”
Unlike all the unregistered ice cream vans trading in Leamington, WDC had all my details on their records from when I was registered previously, so, I was an easy case for them to prosecute.
August 2018, I receive a letter from WDC informing me that I had committed an offence and to attend an interview at their headquarters on 6th September. In bold text it also said “You should consider taking legal advice on this matter” I went to see a solicitor in Warwick, I told him my story which was backed up by a folder full of all my e.mails to and from WDC. He told me that morally I had a case, but in the eyes of the law I was guilty. He suggested that I apply for a new licence straight away as this should help my case. He also explained to me what might happen to me at the interview. This ranged from a verbal warning to a criminal case being put towards me at a court of law whereby I could be told to stop selling ice creams in Leamington. I took his advice and got a license.
6th September 2018. I attend WDC headquarters with my solicitor. We went into an interview room where the proceedings are recorded. I was asked how I was going to plead and I said guilty. After I pleaded guilty to not having a licence I was told that they would take action against anybody who I reported to them that was trading without a Street Traders Licence. I left there with just a verbal warning. No fine, but my solicitors fee was £400 which is the same as having a fine.
It gets interesting from here.
September 2019. Its time for me to renew my licence. I notice that they have changed the wording on it. There used to be just one licence now there are two. You have to apply for a Street Traders Licence or a new Static Licence which covers you if you are pitched up somewhere.
Remember me saying earlier that I would not park outside The Jephsons, but, I would do if any ice cream van did my run. Well this system has worked quite all these years but now I can’t park there. I need to get a Static licence as well as a Street licence.
I applied to the Council for a Static Licence. On the form I said I wanted to park in Newbold Terrace outside the entrance to The Jephson Gardens, exactly where all the other vans park. I got a letter back saying that no ice cream vans are allowed to park there. I asked whereabouts in Leamington can an ice cream van park up to sell ice creams and they replied. Nowhere.
I pointed out to the Council that ice cream vans are parking outside The Jephsons and by The Pump Room Gardens on a daily basis. They replied and told me that no ice cream vans are parking there.
I have never parked outside The Jephsons and I don’t particularly want to, but, I don’t want to be told that I can’t park there . This would mean that the other vans would now be free to do my run with no repercussions.
June 2020. I email WDC. I say “ In September last year. You told me I could not sell ice creams in Newbold Terrace. Could you tell me why you are allowing other ice cream vans to trade there on a daily basis” WDC replied, “We have contacted the owner/operators of the vehicles that are trading outside of Jephson Gardens. We have had a number of conversations with the individuals involved and have been assured that the practice will stop. Officers are now gathering evidence and operators have been informed that we will move to the next stage of revocation or prosecution if we find consistent noncompliance with conditions.”
I wrote back “Regarding the vans parking outside the Jephsons. It would appear to me that whatever the owner/operators say to you, they intend to continue to park there for ever. They were parked there today and have been parking there most days for the last two months. How much consistent noncompliance with conditions do you need.”
WDC have the powers to stop the ice cream vans from parking somewhere they are not supposed to. One of the conditions on the consent holders licence is:
Any person who engages in street trading in a designated consent street unless authorised by the council under the provisions of Schedule 4, Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982 commits an offence and is liable, on conviction, to a fine not exceeding £1000 per offence i.e. for each day trading without a consent.
WDC choose not to fine anybody £1000 and that is why they have got a problem.
April 2021. Ice cream vans are still selling ice creams outside the parks in Leamington Spa with the full knowledge of Warwick District Council and without a licence, on a daily basis. WDC told me that I am not allowed to park outside the parks. I ask WDC Licensing for a list of registered ice cream van traders. There are 2 lists, static traders and mobile traders. Nobody has a static licence. On the mobile list are 6 vans, 2 of them are mine. The other 4 vans do not operate as mobile, they are parked static all day outside the parks. Not on any list are another 4 vans that come into Leamington from time to time and sell ice creams around the streets.
Sports Day Edmondscote 1980’s
December 2021. I decided to officially complain to Warwick District Council about their Licensing Department. I had 4 Complaints
(1) That the Licensing department knowingly gave street trading consents to people who were going to trade illegally. They responded in 97 words with a load of technicalities, and then said “Therefore, this point of the complaint is not upheld.”
(2) The Licensing department have refused to take any formal action against consent holders despite complaints being made. (for example fining them £1000) They responded in 56 words and basically said that “any enforcement taken has been graduated and proportionate” and then said “Therefore, this point of the complaint is not upheld.”
(3) The Licensing department took no action against those ice cream vans trading without a consent. (this is about the vans going around the estates of Leamington not the ones sitting outside The Jephsons) They responded in 79 words and basically said something about the DVLA and something else that did not make sense to me and then said “Therefore, this point of the complaint is not upheld.”
(4) That by applying for a static pitch to trade outside Jephson Gardens on Newbold Terrace in 2019, 2020,and 2021 should have highlighted the ongoing issues at that location to the Licensing department. They responded by saying “ The Licensing department are aware of the location and of Mr McNally’s complaints regarding Newbold Terrace. Visits have been made to the location and when breaches were witnessed by officers’ appropriate action was taken. Therefore, I do not uphold this aspect of the complaint.”
2022. 31st August. My street trading Licence expires with WDC and I decide not to renew it.I have been fighting a losing battle with them, and I could never win. They make the rules up and do whatever they want to. I can not justify getting another licence from them, it would mean that I endorse their organisation and I certainly do not.
2023 Sunday 11th June 9.15am. I am in Coventry at the ice cream wholesalers where I buy my stock from. I walk into the office to place my order and I see one of the people I have been complaining about, he was just about to leave when he saw me, he turned back to talk to the lady who had just served him and said to her “Here is the person who likes to complain to Warwick District Council about me.” Then turning to me he said “Well, you ain’t going to f******g stop me, I will be putting 3 vans into Leamington next year. Do you know how much you are costing me?” then he mumbled with a load of figures containing a 2 and various noughts and finally said £200,000. £200,000 per van for not being able to park up outside The Jephsons.
Then turning to the lady he said “He wants to be careful because I know someone who will set fire to his vans.”Then, obviously embarrassed by what was going on, the lady told him to stop saying things like that. I said to her “it’s ok, let him carry on. Then he turned to me and while tapping on his phone he said “I know someone who gets rid of people and I am going to book you in. I was going to do it before but I am going to do it now. I am going to f*****g kill you. You are going to end up like Derek Smith.
At this point a bit of gallows humour crept in, I vaguely knew who Derek Smith was. He was an ice cream man who lived in Coventry in the 1970’s 80’s. so I asked him “what did happen to Derek Smith” he replied “Nobody knows, do they, he just disappeared and that is what is going to happen to you.
Then he spoke to the lady to try and justify why he was going to kill me. He said to her that I am ruining Leamington for other ice cream men because I sell ice creams for 50p. That is true, I don’t advertise the fact, but, if I see that somebody wants to buy an ice cream for their baby/toddler. Instead of them buying a Mini Milk, I offer to make a very small ice cream for them and because there is not much ice cream on the cone which is perfect for a child under 2 years old I charge them 50p.
And there we have it, in the last paragraph. Two ice cream men who have different ideas on how to do the job. One wants to give the customer what they want and the other wants to kill his competitors.
The next day, I telephoned WDC Licensing department and told them about the death threat incident and they told me to contact the police. I went to Leamington police station and reported the matter to them. Later on 2 policemen came to my house to take a statement and give me a crime reference number.
August 2024. So, here we are, over a year has gone by and nothing has changed. I still see the same ice cream vans selling ice creams in Leamington. Whether they have got a licence to do so, I don’t know because I refuse to get one and I have stopped communicating with WDC Licensing Department. I don’t really want to be a law breaker but I don’t want to have to give my endorsement to The Licensing Department by purchasing a Licence off them, so I have decided that this will be my final year selling ice creams. It makes sense, I past my driving test in 1974 and started driving an ice cream van around Leamington so retiring in 2024 is a nice round 50 years. That’ll do me.
Park Hall school 70’s/80’s
Now, before I go, what I am leaving behind?
The ongoing situation of the ice cream vans parking in town.
Ice cream vans are not allowed to trade in the town centre but they do.
The police will not move them along because it is a civil matter and they have a lot of other things they have to do. It is Warwick District Council Licensing Department whose job it is to do so. They have all the tools they need. They can fine a trader £1,000 per offence. That is for each day trading without a consent.
WDC let ice cream vans trade outside the gates of The Jephsons Gardens without a consent to do so. This is less than 100yards away from a cafe inside The Jephsons who also sells ice creams. I assume the person who runs the cafe has to pay money to WDC for the privilege of doing so. The ice cream vans outside the gates do not pay any money to WDC for trading there.
It looks like to me that WDC have done a deal with the ice cream vans. They have stopped the vans parking directly outside the gates. Now they park across the road in Newbold Street. This means that anybody who are in The Jephsons and wants an ice cream from the van now has to negotiate the traffic going along Newbold Terrace and Newbold Street to purchase one. Not a good scenario especially if you have got children with you.
There is a 2 hour parking restriction in Newbold Street. The ice cream vans park there for 5 hours. They do not get a parking ticket from the traffic wardens. If you or I park our car there for 5 hours we would get a parking ticket.
In June 2020, four years ago, after pointing out to Warwick District Council Licensing Department that ice cream vans are parking in the town centre without permission to do so. WDC wrote to me and said
“We have contacted the owner/operators of the vehicles that are trading outside of Jephson Gardens. We have had a number of conversations with the individuals involved and have been assured that the practice will stop. Officers are now gathering evidence and operators have been informed that we will move to the next stage of revocation or prosecution if we find consistent noncompliance with conditions.”
It looked to me that WDC had finally acknowledged what was going on with the unlicensed ice cream vans, and talked about, being assured the practice will stop, gathering evidence and revocation and prosecution.
Now, four years later, the practice has not stopped.
Now, four years later. Instead of revoking their licence they are given a new one every year. This licence is not to sell ice creams in the town centre, it is to sell ice creams around housing estates.They use this licence to sell ice creams in the town centre, if challenged they can show a certificate issued by WDC that they have Vehicle Permission to park in that street.
Now, four years later. Instead of gathering evidence. WDC are assisting the ice cream van owners by issuing them with a mobile licence which they use as a static licence.
Now, four years later. Instead of prosecution. As far as I know, the only ice cream man they have ever prosecuted is me.
