AN ANGRY trader is poised to do battle over displays of fruit and vegetables outside his town centre shop.

David Brass, of Banana News, Clitheroe, has been told by highways bosses to move the small grocery display from the pavement outside his Castle Street shop or risk prosecution.

But the defiant trader has criticised "petty officialdom" and vowed to fight the matter in the courts.

He said there had been a display outside the shop for 100 years without incident. He said: "Lancashire County Council has written to me threatening legal action if I don't move the display.

"I have moved A-boards in the past but the fruit and veg is another matter. I can't do without it.

"I work 80 hours a week and am surviving on the narrowest of margins. The display is vital to my business."

The newsagent and grocer said town centre shopkeepers were being hit left, right and centre. "We always seem to be at war with councils. Why are they on to us all the time?

"They seem to want to pull the rug out from underneath our feet. My display is on a particularly wide part of the pavement and is only an obstruction if people walk eight abreast!

"There has been a display outside this shop for 100 years and as far as I know nobody has injured themselves in all that time."

He said he was determined to take a stand and added that if he had "bowed to petty officialdom in the past, I would have gone under by now."

"I might go down to the new Sainsburys but I am not going under to a council.

"First it was my A-boards, which I moved. Then they objected to my Christmas trees, which I also moved.

"Now it's my fruit and vedge. Well, I am not moving them. I am going to fight this all the way to the courts," he vowed.

A Lancashire County Council spokesman said officers were due to discuss the matter.

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