Ruling fishy for operator

A Waikiki mobile frozen seafood seller has claimed Rockingham City Council has treated his application to operate in the city unfairly.

Rob Brown said he had licences to operate in six neighbouring council areas, but Rockingham council had refused him permission to trade at private sites, for which he had owner permission.

But, he said, a frozen seafood van had been operating at Singleton for some time.

Mr Brown, sales and marketing manager of Dolphin Seafood, said it appeared unfair to allow one seafood van to trade and not another.

‘‘Where is the level playing field?’’ he asked.

‘‘There is already one operator in the area. Surely there is room for more than one seafood van in the city?’’

The council stated in a letter of July 6 that the seafood van at Singleton was in operation before the city’s current health policy on traders came into effect on June 23, 1998.

Rockingham Mayor Barry Sammels said on Friday the Singleton vendor was not contravening council policy.

‘‘We receive a number of street trading applications each year and we do not generally issue permits to allow street trading, particularly if the applicant would be in direct competition with surrounding businesses,’’ he said.

‘‘The city’s health policy prohibits traders from operating within 200m of any shops or other licence holders selling the same types of commodities.‘‘

Mr Brown applied to operate within 200m of established shops that sell seafood, which is a contravention of the city’s health policy, so the application was refused.

‘‘In the case of the Singleton trader, the city’s health services determined that the needs of the community were not already being adequately serviced so that trader was given a permit,’’ he said.