An ice cream van will be allowed to trade from a street in Falmouth despite concerns from people living in a retirement complex nearby about noise. 

Grzegorz Jurkiewicz had applied for a street trading licence so that he could operate from Cliff Road in the town.

Mr Jurkiewicz, who trades as Family J Ice Creams, wanted to park his Ford Transit ice cream van in the street to sell ice creams, cold drinks and snacks. He had applied to be able to open from 9am to 7pm every day.

No objections to the application had been received from the statutory consultees but two local residents had objected due to concerns about noise. They live in Bay Court on Cliff Road, a complex of retirement apartments.

Both residents said that a previous trader operating in Cliff Road had caused noise disturbance from a generator which meant that they had been unable to open their windows. 

Mr Jurkiewicz told the committee that he would not be using a generator and would be running an ice cream whipping machine from his vehicle’s engine.

One resident said in her submission to the council that “the prospect of yet another van being hoisted on us fills me with horror”. 

She added that “being able to sit on my little balcony is my main source of fresh air and sunlight. If it is very windy I sit just inside the balcony door in the lounge where it is sheltered. I have already suffered one old ice cream van with an outside generator which tormented me in every room in my flat.”

And she said: “I can assure you there are many others in Bay Court who feel the same. Please could we hear the sound of the sea and children’s laughter during the summer again instead of an either continuous or intermittent droning engine.”

Her concerns were echoed by a neighbour, who said: “On many occasions we have complained to the council about the noise nuisance caused by the previous trader’s diesel generator, which prevented us being able to have our windows open. In their recent renewal application (subsequently withdrawn) they had planned to use a silent generator.

“Therefore we would expect any further applications for traders’ licences to also use a silent generator. In the new application referred to above they are only committing to “try” to operate a silent business as much as possible. It should be a condition of their licence to only operate a silent generator. Site 1 is in a predominantly retirement residential area and the noise nuisance caused by traders, which we have complained about in the past, directly affects our quality of life.”

Mr Jurkiewicz said in a written response to the second woman’s concerns: “We are not using any external generator. I will serve ice cream made from the soft-serve whippy machine, which will run on the Ice cream van engine. I will charge the deep-freeze freezer overnight at home, and good to go for the whole day.” He said that the noise of the engine would be much lower than that of a generator.

Cornwall Council’s street trading sub-committee agreed to grant the licence stating that if there had been concerns about the noise of the van then there would have been submissions from the environmental protection team. They said they were satisfied that the applicant would not be using a generator and that there would not be as much noise as previous traders.