Home Bakers Close Cake Sheds Over Costly Council Licence Rules

A home baker has closed her garden cake shed after Bassetlaw District Council required a street trading licence costing £1,007 ($1,270) or faced a £1,000 fine.

Natalie Brook, 37, sold cakes from her garden in Rhodesia, Nottinghamshire, since January. Cake shed owners recently learned from the council that their operations fall under street trading policy. The council applies the rules mainly to larger businesses but makes no exceptions.

For Natalie, who baked on weekends, the licence fee made continuing unviable. She was not contacted directly by the council and believes she missed an officer's visit. Other local cake shed owners informed her.

"It feels like a lot," she said. "I understand that other businesses have to pay these licences for burger vans or whatever, but they're on actual streets. This is in my garden. We are not serving hundreds of people. I could understand if it was a lower amount, but £1,007 to sell a few cakes at the weekend just seems ridiculous."

Natalie calculated she would need to sell about 500 cakes to cover the licence and break even. She now plans to test a pre-order collection service from her house but doubts its success.

"I find it bizarre I can sell from my front door, but not from my shed, which is less than a metre away from my front door," she said. "People can afford a couple of pounds on a cake, and if that is what they're using for a little treat during a cost of living crisis, then that's amazing, and I want to be a part of that. It makes me sad that the council is trying to take that away."

Sally Bruce, 49, runs a cake shed from her home in Carlton in Lindrick, Nottinghamshire, for about a year. Her cookie pies draw customers. The council assured her at startup that no licence was needed. She paid for a DBS check and commercial waste management.

An enforcement officer visited her last Friday and ordered her to stop trading immediately and apply for a licence. As her full-time job, she expects to apply despite the cost.

She agrees full-time operators should pay something but calls £1,007 excessive. "A fair compromise would be something a bit more tailored to what we actually do and what we offer," she said. "A lot of it seems redundant for us, and we're just ticking a box that costs a lot of money. And the general feel from cake shedders that I'm in touch with... most of them are just going to have to shut. I just don't think they can take the cost of it, which is a shame, because it is a lovely thing."

The council consulted on its street trading policy over two years. Its licensing committee decided cake sheds must comply due to food safety, hygiene, monitoring needs, neighbour complaints and fairness to existing traders.

Cheaper six-month licences or trading at fairs offer alternatives. Fees drop after the first year. A spokesperson said cake sheds vary from honesty-box tables to operations with social media ads and card payments.

"While the main scope of the policy is directed at larger businesses who wish to trade from a fixed location, there are currently no concessions that can be applied to residents who wish to sell baked goods though 'cake sheds'," the spokesperson said. "Our licensing team has been instructed to take a proportionate and pragmatic approach to enforcement based on the individual circumstances. Any fines would only result from a successful prosecution in the most serious cases, where a trader has persistently sold goods without a licence."