Home baker shuts cake shed over 'ridiculous' rules
A home-based baker has decided to close her popular cake shed after learning she may need an expensive street trading license from the local council. Natalie Brook, 37, had been selling homemade cakes from a small shed in her garden in Rhodesia, Nottinghamshire, since the beginning of the year.
However, concerns over licensing costs have forced her to rethink the idea. According to several local cake shed owners, Bassetlaw District Council informed them that operating these types of roadside-style businesses requires a street trading license.
The permit costs £1,007, and traders who fail to comply could risk fines of up to £1,000.
The council explained that although the rules are mainly designed for larger street vendors, businesses selling directly to the public still fall under the same policy. Exceptions, they said, cannot easily be made.
Natalie believes the fee is unfair for such a small-scale operation. She explained that her cake shed only opened on weekends and served a limited number of local customers. In her view, comparing a tiny garden shed to larger food vendors operating on busy streets makes little sense.
She estimated that she would need to sell around 500 cakes simply to recover the cost of the licence before making any profit. Because of this, she has decided to shut the shed and instead experiment with a pre-order collection service from her home.
Customers will now place orders in advance and collect them during weekends.
Despite adapting her business model, Natalie says the situation still feels unreasonable.
She finds it strange that she is allowed to hand cakes to customers directly from her front door, but not from a shed located only a short distance away in the same garden.