I love an ice-cream from the ice-cream, Mr Whippy, strawberry sauce and a flake please!
But it seems loads off areas are restricting where they’re allowed because they are an eye sore, cause pollution and bottle necks around tourist attractions like the Cutty Sark
Last time I was in London they should have been restricting them cos of their prices, a right rip off!
But they’re not banning them completely, just restricting them to specific places and time slots so fairy nuff, I suppose
The only time I use to curse them a bit is when they used to park right outside the primary schools at home time
Of course on hot days all the kids wanted one. But too expensive for most parents every day plus not really healthy
Recently there was a classic car show at Townley Hall, Burnley
I didn’t go, but I’ve heard that you could only buy ice cream with a Smartphone App
Years ago I used to go to air shows, classic car shows, and similar events and took my own food & drink in a cool box
If payment by App becomes more common, plus the high prices, I may well start doing that again
It wouldn’t be so easy to take ice cream, sandwiches & drinks stay cold enough
I remember the ice cream van coming through the village when my kids were still at home and we often used to dash out and buy ice creams or ice lollies for everyone. I never liked the Mr Whippy type ice cream so if they didn’t have the firm ice cream that’s served in scoops, I would have a fruit mivvi lolly instead.
I kind of miss hearing the cheery chimes of the ice cream van on a sunny afternoon.
The only places I see ice-cream vans nowadays is when they are parked up in car parks at local countryside beauty spots or wherever there is a public event or fete in the area. I think they have to have some kind of trading licence or permission from landowner for that.
There is one particular place in the N.Yorkshire Moors National Park called the Hole of Horcum which is a favourite walk of mine - whenever we have taken a circular walk down into the Hole of Horcum, the ice cream van in the roadside car park at the top of hill overlooking the Hole of Horcum was always a welcome sight on our return!
The same family firm have had an ice cream van parked there in good weather since I was a child.
In 2019, their Licence had lapsed in the Winter and before they got round to renewing it for the next Summer season, the National Park Authority nipped in and granted themselves Consent to operate their own refreshments pitch there, which they are tendering out.
That was the start of the Hole of Horcum Ice Cream Wars!
When the family firm put in an application to renew their licence, as usual, it was turned down because it was considered having two refreshment pitches would make the beauty spot too commercialised and it was too dangerous to have more than one refreshments pitch on the edge of the car park.
Eventually, after much appealing, the icy stance of the Authorities thawed a bit and they reached a compromise - the pitch which the National Park had taken for itself to tender out was shifted along by 8 feet to allow room for the traditional family ice cream van to have a licensed pitch too.
I suppose that depends on what a parent would class as too expensive. The makings are not expensive, so maybe the vendors are making too much profit.
I’ve been in the cash-n-carry when sizable quantities of the mix have been purchased, so Sephra Soft must work out to be merely pennies per cone. OnBuy.com will even deliver it for an inclusive price of £33.73 for 12 x 1L packs
I think the mark up on ice-cream from vans is huge, though?
It was a good few years ago mine were at school but I remember the ice-creams being the better part of a £1, so two kids, five days a week, that would have been a tenner on ice-cream, which we didn’t have, and anyway, it wouldn’t have been good for them
We compromised by having one once a week, on Fridays to celebrate the start of the week-end, but I still heaved a sigh of relief when the van vanished in September!
Maybe that could be somewhat justified when taking into account the full running costs of each dispensing van including the chilling & churning machinery.
A charity fund raiser I used to assist has a tabletop maker and I know that cost the setup over £3k about 8yrs ago. I reckon that must cost around perhaps £5k to replace at todays prices.
EDIT my £5k was a very good guess Blue Ice Table Top Ice Cream Machine T15 - GK920 - Buy Online at Nisbets
An ice cream truck passes by where I live every summer. I’ve never been to it but have seen others stop the truck.
I seem to remember an ice cream truck when I was little. I think we got chocolate popsicles. Later, my mom kept some of those in the freezer. Probably cheaper.
If I’m remembering right, I think we bought candy from the truck as well when I was little.
Reminds me of a Tommy Cooper joke :
"So I went down my local ice-cream shop, and said ‘I want to buy an ice-cream’. He said Hundreds & thousands?’ I said ‘We’ll start with one.’
He said ‘Knickerbocker glory?’ I said ‘I do get a certain amount of freedom in these trousers, yes.’
My favourite Tommy Cooper joke…
“He went into a shop and said how much do you sell wasps for?”
The shopkeeper said “We don’t sell wasps”
Tommy said “You’ve got one in the window”…
