A popular Bath street food stand will be able to serve food six days a week, despite facing a battle from its neighbours.
LJ Hugs on Bog Island in Bath | Photo © LJ Hugs / blueOrange studio
Currently based on Bog Island between the signs for the old Island Club, LJ Hugs has been serving Cajun street food to the people of Bath for the last ten years.
It previously opened six days a week but recently has only been open Tuesdays to Saturdays after the stall realised it did not have the street trading licence to open on Mondays.
LJ Hugs said this had been a “clerical error” and applied to Bath & North East Somerset Council to be able to trade on Mondays.
But the matter had to go before the council’s licensing sub-committee for a hearing after three neighbouring businesses objected.
At the licensing hearing on 28th November, Tom Burton of LJ Hugs said the error was “our mistake”.
But he added: “Since we have been told it’s actually five days, we have lost a day’s trade. We have had to let go of two members of staff.”
Owner Lewis Farquharson said: “It’s had a massive impact losing one day a week through no reason of our own except for a clerical error.”
But three nearby shops, Sukko, House of Bridgwater, and Bath Chip Shop, lodged objections to the plan, citing concerns over litter, traffic, and “the smell of fried chicken”.
Mr Burton said the objections “threw us a little bit”. He said: “As hospitality businesses we kind of thought we had each others back.”
Delshad Mageed of Bath Chip Shop told the committee that people would sit in his upstairs seating area eating food bought from LJ Hugs and that people would “completely block” in the loading bay in front of this shop to eat their food.
Chair of the committee Shaun Hughes said: “Sadly that’s not a consideration for this committee.”
Mr Farquharson said: “We are a community based company and one of our main goals was to create jobs in the area, not just locally but regionally across three sites.”
LJ Hugs also has a kiosk on Broadmead in Bristol and in November opened a new restaurant in Trowbridge, where one of the employees let go has been re-employed, and has been nominated for Uber Eats restaurant of the year.
The committee agreed to grant LJ Hugs the licence to trade on Mondays as applied for.
Their decision stated: “They found that the additional day of operation would be unlikely to have an effect on public safety or amenity, nor would it cause an obstruction.”
The street food stall is open from 11am-6pm. Although its usual pitch is on Bog Island, for the duration of the Bath Christmas Market, it has moved just around the corner onto Grand Parade by the entrance to Parade Gardens.
John Wimperis, Local Democracy Reporter
