07 Mar 2024
The owner of the popular food van Dave’s Tasty Bites will be turning off his fryer for the last time this month due to the proposed hike in pitch costs for street traders.
Dave Lawrence said although any decision on the changes has yet to be made – and is due to take place at a meeting of the strategy and resources committee on Thursday (March 7) – if the street trading consent is scrapped and the council market department take over, there will be a market on every day of the week with four extra food stalls.
“My pitch rent will increase approximately 1,000 per cent on the four days I will trade but there will also be a reduced turn over due to the impact of more food stalls.
“My food prices would have to rise and my customers would be hit while we have a cost of living crisis in this country.”
Dave explained how missing his turning on the A1 from Grantham led to him spending 41 years in a food van in St Albans.
After leaving school, he completed a four-year apprenticeship in wood finishing and a management course at the London college of furniture, while working for Stonehill furniture, which he did for 17 years.
Deciding it was time for a change, he spoke to a friend who had his own food stall.
He said: “How I arrived at St Albans was by chance. I was on my way to view a catering trailer in Grantham and I missed my turn of for the A1 so I came through St Albans on a Saturday and said what a great market they had and suggested to my wife that we should get on the waiting list. Five weeks later we got a call out of the blue saying there was a pitch available.”
In his last seven years at the furniture store, Dave started trading on the Saturday market in St Albans before handing in his notice there and trading on Wednesdays too. He started a family shortly afterwards.
He said he has loved his time serving chips and burgers – the most popular order he receives – and his own favourite dish is his chips.
He said the best part of trading here has been meeting people from all over, with so many returning customers who are now friends who come and meet up everyday day for a cuppa, a bite to eat and a good old chat.
“It’s become a meeting place even in the bad weather! I now serve families of three generations in the time I have been trading, watching kids grow up and have children of their own, some are even grandparents now.”
But he said that the Charter Market has changed dramatically in the time he’s been trading: “The weekly markets are nothing like they used to be with 200 stalls
on a Saturday with the famous blue and yellow sheets and the amazing choice of products…traders used to come rain or shine.”
What won’t he miss? “The cold and very windy days, equipment going wrong on a busy day and getting up at 3.45am for the Wednesday and Saturday markets in the middle of winter.”
Looking forward to putting his feet up or at least having the occasional lie-in, Dave said he has plenty to keep himself busy, but promised: “I will still come into St Albans and see friends like ‘seven goal Ted’ (alias rock ‘n’ roll Tony), ‘musician Pete’ and Mia, Moe, Roy, Steve. ”And, from day one, ‘Cheese Dog Ian’ and so many more I might not have mentioned. Sorry!”
