After issuing $200 tickets against food trucks involved in Savory Saturday, the City says there was an error and have cancelled the tickets. Senior City Staff are now working to find a way to prevent further ticketing of Food Trucks near special events who are respecting the spirit of the Food Truck Bylaw
UPDATES
The Food Trucks are reporting on their social media accounts that City staff contacted them to state this weekend’s tickets are cancelled. -Monday, November 18 10:00 p.m.
The City confirms the tickets were “issued in error” and have cancelled them.– 2:00 p.m.
They issued tickets in the vicinity of the Santa Claus Parade, four to food trucks (now cancelled), one to a hot-dog vendor, and two to “Hawkers/Pedlars” operating without proper licenses.
Marty Hazell, City’s Senior Director in charge of by-law enforcement, is investigating the event further to ensure the errors do not happen again in the future. -4:00 p.m.
Original Story
Hamilton’s food trucks received a naughty surprise when Santa came to town Saturday, the City’s Municipal Law Enforcement officers put them on the naughty list.
The trucks participating in the weekly Savory Saturday event received lumps of coal from the City in the form of a $200 fine or court summons for being within 100 metres of the Santa Claus Parade route, say the trucks ticketed.
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CORRECTION
Some of the trucks were issued court summons, not all were given fines on the spot. The story is updated to reflect this information. – 20:00hrs November 17- - - - - -[/module]
The City’s Senior Director in charge of by-law enforcement Marty Hazell said, in an email, he is investigating what happened stating he wasn’t sure why the bylaw was enforced in this instance.
Hamilton’s by-law enforcement is primarily complaint driven, with officers dispatched in response.
Hazell will provide an update on Monday.
The food trucks involved – The Hamilton Funnel Cake Factory, karma chaMEALeon, Urban Express, Jonny Blonde Food Truck – are preparing to fight the $200 fine in court and are rallying their supporters on social media.
The court date, if the tickets are not revoked, is scheduled for January 10, 2014 at 1:30 p.m. at the John Sopinka Courthouse.
Food Trucking for Charity
Saturday is traditionally the slowest day of the week for Hamilton’s Food Trucks and Hamilton’s own Melissa May Height came up with solution – Savory Saturdays.*
*
Since July, Food Trucks converge on the vacant lot on the Southwest corner of Queen and Main. They sell their food and a portion of proceeds goes to the Food4Kids charity: it’s a win-win-win for the food trucks, the community, and Hamilton as a whole.
For the past four months, the event has successfully raised thousands of dollars without any issues with the City.
I’ll update the story tomorrow as soon as Hazell provides more information.