ICE creams and lollipops have been branded "totally inappropriate" for a North Cotswolds village.

With summer beginning to show its face, owner of Lower Slaughter’s Old Mill Museum Gerald Harris recently applied for street trading consent to sell cooling treats from his tricycle on land along the Rive Eye from 11.30am until 6pm every day from April 1 until October 30.

However, he found himself met with fierce opposition from the parish council, which has registered its unhappiness about his street vending on several occasions in the past.

Lower Slaughter Parish Council chairman Christine Edwin said the selling of ice creams and lollipops was "totally inappropriate" for the village and the proposed trading times excessive.

"At the very least we feel that trading times should be restricted from the requested seven days a week six months of the year," she said. "Last year the trike was left unattended for much of the time, solely as an advertisement for Mr Harris’s business.

"The parish council feels this could be a danger to young children who might climb the trike and then fall into the river, just a few inches away.

"The proposed position of the trike is on a very narrow verge where there is likely to be obstruction caused to pedestrians by the trike itself. New grass has been sown but has not yet appeared. Footfall will increase the likelihood of it ceasing to grow at all."

However, Cotswold District Council’s licensing sub-committee this week permitted the application, to run until October 31, on the condition that the tricycle is not left unattended for more than an hour.

Gloucestershire County Council’s highways manager Bob Skillern said he had no objection to the trading aspect but was unhappy if the tricycle was being left for long periods.

Mr Harris said: "It gets opposed every year but it gets approved because it’s a registered spot to sell ice creams. Whoever applies for it, it gets opposed by the parish council."