The Moving Mug has been involved in a planning battle with the Borough Council, and it wants to move from place to place but has been stuck in one location because of repairs.
We spoke to Nieve Taylor on The Kent Morning Show.
We spoke to Nieve Taylor on The Kent Morning Show.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00I think it's, I think it's so refreshing to see a couple, like a young couple
00:06starting a business together. I think that's definitely been the sweetest
00:11response from all of the the regulars nearby. It helps create like a really
00:15homely environment on the cafe. I don't think we can have a dog on the screen
00:18without asking the name. Gorgeous. Oh this is Dolly. Hi Dolly. Has she been on the bus?
00:25She has, she has. She's one of the only dogs allowed on the bus. A special
00:31exception, all right. Right, let's talk about this planning permission. The
00:34council says you need it. What do you currently have to operate there? Because
00:39of course businesses need the relevant permits to be where they are, whether
00:44they move or whether they don't. We are, we're fully registered as a mobile
00:48vendor. Obviously the idea was to take it to festivals, events, stuff like that.
00:56Being able to be on this private line was a massive help, obviously before we
01:00knew we needed repairs doing. And now that we know that we need repairs doing,
01:05we're having to jump through all of these hurdles, quite unexpected ones as
01:10well. And quite, it's quite nerve-wracking, like it's quite a baby business. Well the
01:17council is saying you need to stay there, if you want to stay there
01:21permanently you're going to have to have planning permission. So are you thinking
01:24of going through the planning permission route or are you going to move on? What's
01:26what's the next step for you? It just wouldn't, it wouldn't be ideal, it
01:30wouldn't be reasonable because it's not a permanent location anyway. The planning
01:34permission is probably going to cost more than what our repairs would cost.
01:39And just as a business decision, it's not, it's not smart and it's not
01:46helpful that the council have put us in this position. What is your solution then? What
01:50will you do? We, we had a lot of regulars come and ask us if there was a
01:55petition going and we hadn't thought to start a petition. So in the, in the days
02:01that we didn't hear anything back from the council, we started a petition and
02:04got over 700 signatures in 24 hours. We're close to a thousand now, which is
02:10really sweet, it's really, really good. So that is just going to buy us time, it's
02:15not, it's not necessarily money that we need, it's just the time to find
02:19our footing. Yeah, we're looking at some of your videos on the screen now, I think
02:23it really goes to show just how popular you guys are. It's no surprise that
02:26you've got this backing from some of your, some of your followers and some of
02:29your regulars. Tell us about the repair side of things then, because you're
02:34taking on it on a new venture like this, I suppose lots of unexpected costs do
02:38come up. How tricky is it, how difficult is it to keep a converted double-decker
02:43going? Honestly, our bus is in really good condition. We failed on one thing, we
02:48failed our MOT on just one thing. It's gonna be pretty simple to fix, but again
02:55it's, we're gonna have to close for a week to get it fixed and it's all the
02:59complications that come with closing the store whilst we get the repairs done.
03:04Yeah, it's an interesting conversation because you've got this new venture
03:09that's done really well on social media, but then you have the real world, the
03:13offline issues of things like planning permission as well. So I suppose, what
03:17would you say to the council, because the council's position is that they
03:20require all businesses if, you know, in this scenario to have planning
03:23permission. It's not targeting you, it's, it's kind of just the rules. What I would
03:29say is that obviously as a double-decker cafe, we are quite a niche and there are
03:35a lot of guidelines that might need to be written for us and I think that the
03:39council and councils across the UK have an opportunity to help create new
03:46guidelines for people who have new ideas for businesses instead of putting them
03:53off starting them in the first place. Okay, well best of luck to yourselves and
03:57the future of the business. What's the plans for today? Are you still serving at
04:00the moment? You got anything fun going on? I saw some of those cakes on there, they look very lovely.
04:05Yeah, when I leave this call we'll be heading straight to the cafe. Okay, better get a
04:11move on then, if you pardon the pun. Niamh, thank you very much for your time today.