Which of us didn’t have a sale of work when we were growing up?
It’s almost a right of passage to carry an ancient table down to the end of your front garden, arrange all your toys and clothes into a nice pile, and charge people 50c for the stuff you don’t want anymore (but will probably regret selling afterwards).
One of the less common things we saw growing up was the classic lemonade stand.
Traditionally an American custom, it’s maybe the one thing that required a bit too much effort for us Irish kids to care about.
And maybe we were right not to bother, because a five-year-old girl in the UK has just been fined by her local council for selling lemonade at the end of her street.
Took 5 year old daughter to end of our road to run lemonade stand. Fined £180. She's now sobbing, 'I did a bad thing'. Thx @TowerHamletsNow
— André Spicer (@andre_spicer) July 15, 2017
A London dad has told of how he brought his daughter to sell some lemonade as an activity to “get us through the long summer days,” only to be approached by four council enforcements officers after half an hour.
Writing in The Telegraph, Andre Spicer said that the officers “stormed up” to his daughter’s table, read a statement about her not having a trading permit, and told her that she would be fined £150… “£90 if it’s paid quickly.”
“My daughter burst into tears, repeating again and again ‘have I done a bad thing?’
After five minutes, the officers’ jobs were done and they went on their way. We packed up and made the short walk home. My daughter sobbed all the way.”
The dad also included a photo of the fine in the article.
Andre said that he told his daughter not to worry, and that they would get a permit and have the stall another day.
However, his daughter replied saying that she didn’t want to because it’s “too scary.”
