Quickly in between, Ans Kikkert answers the phone. She’s been busy since being told yesterday that she might have to find another place for her ice cream truck. “That family says they experience nuisance from my customers, but they live 30 meters away,” says Ans from Texel. “They just wanted something to get me out.”
For fifteen years now, Ans has been selling her ice cream at the relevant place at the intersection of the Jan Ayeslag and Rommelpot. The eye-catcher is her ice cream cart. Visitors can eat the ice cream on decorated tree stumps. She does not understand why her ice cream truck has been classified as a catering industry by the judge. “I have no kitchen, no sanitary facilities, my place is not fenced, there is no ‘terrace’ sign and no service,” she said in an interview with the Noordhollands Dagblad. “When it comes to the seats on the logs, they’ll take it away.”
She doesn’t know yet how to proceed. She can finish the summer season. The municipality has eight weeks to formulate a new decision on the objection from local residents, the press judge stated. Until then, she can stay there.
It has not yet been said that Ans has to finally pack up her stuff, says the press judge. The municipality could decide that the objection is well-founded and then it will have to enforce it (and Ans cannot remain there). But other outcomes are also possible, he assures. “And the municipality can also appeal within six weeks.”
Intact
“The court has not annulled the permit, but the decision on objections that followed,” the municipality of Texel said in a response to NH Nieuws.
“The permit is therefore still intact and Ans can still stand. The court has ordered the college to make a new decision, for which it has eight weeks. That is what will happen. If a new decision has been made, those directly involved are first informed and then third parties.”
In the meantime, the support for Ans remains unabated. So has the petition received hundreds of extra signatures in one day for the preservation of Ans’ ice cream truck.