ROADSIDE FOOD

Guildford branch of the SS — sorry I mean the borough council's Environmental Health has threatened not to renew the licences of roadside traders who do not have the council approved items of healthy food on the menu. The traders are the sort of "greasy spoon" outlets that park in laybys and offer such things as hamburgers, cheeseburger, hot dogs, pies, sausage and all the things that they know they can sell because this is what their customers (one trader says his customers are lorry drivers, builders, scaffolders) want to eat. These people provide a useful service and some go round our industrial wastelands selling at the factory gate or just next to the office. The council wants people to have healthy food so any sausage should be low-fat (=tasteless), grilled (not fried) and served with wholemeal bread. Jacket potato with a selection of fillings is another. The menus will be checked during routine hygiene checks. Well I have no problem about throwing away the licence of unhygienic traders who are caught sticking their hands in a cholera infested lavatory bowl or wiping their bottom before handling food and spreading typhoid all over the place. But this new initiative is a total abuse of their powers. Encouraging people to eat healthily is fine (though a lot of money is being thrown this way) but dictating to them isn't. Now the country is going to the dogs perhaps we could save a bit of money by getting rid of some of these council workers.