![\"\\u200bSteph](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/u200bsteph-goodhand.webp\")
<\/p>\nA baker has been forced to abandon her plans to sell leftover cakes from a roadside honesty box after discovering she would need to pay nearly \u00a3800 for a council licence.<\/p>\n
Steph Goodhand, who runs a coffee trailer business, had intended to use a cake shed on her driveway to offload extra bakes left over from private functions she caters approximately once monthly.<\/p>\n
After learning that another cake shed operator in a separate council area faced a potential \u00a31,000 penalty, the 34-year-old contacted East Riding of Yorkshire Council and was informed that a street trading licence would be necessary.<\/p>\n
According to the council, a licence becomes mandatory when an individual “is operating on a business footing”.<\/p>\n
The authority specified that certain activities would trigger this requirement.<\/p>\n
These included advertising products on social media platforms, accepting card payments, or deliberately producing items for sale.<\/p>\n
East Riding of Yorkshire Council’s website lists a seasonal permit lasting six months at \u00a3440, whilst those seeking year-round authorisation must pay \u00a3795.<\/p>\n
Ms Goodhand does not currently possess a street trading licence as her trailer business operates exclusively at private events rather than public locations.<\/p>\n
A baker has been forced to abandon her plans to sell leftover cakes from a roadside honesty box<\/p>\n
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STEPH GOODHAND<\/p>\n
The licensing fees represent an insurmountable barrier for modest enterprises, according to Goodhand, who described the cost as “100 per cent prohibitive for small businesses”.<\/p>\n
She said: “There’s absolutely no way it’s going to be financially viable to get a street trading licence just to sell cake out of it probably once a month.”<\/p>\n
The baker expressed disappointment at having invested in a cake shed she can no longer use, noting that profit margins on baked goods are slimmer than many assume.<\/p>\n
She explained: “Ingredients are so expensive now – chocolate, eggs, butter… everything is so expensive.”<\/p>\n
![\"Food](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/food-hygiene.jpg\")
She noted that she had obtained food hygiene approval without any mention of a separate trading licence might also be required<\/p>\n
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GETTY<\/p>\n
Ms Goodhand also questioned the apparent inconsistency in how different honesty box products are regulated.<\/p>\n
She told the BBC: “That apparently is okay but cake is not? It doesn’t make sense,” referring to eggs and vegetables sold through similar arrangements.<\/p>\n
Another Goole-based business, Brilliant Brownies, announced on social media in May that they too would cease operating their driveway honesty cake shed following notification from the council about licensing requirements.<\/p>\n
Ms Goodhand raised concerns about inadequate communication between different council departments.<\/p>\n
She noted that she had obtained food hygiene approval without any mention of the possibility that a separate trading licence might also be required.<\/p>\n
She said: “So many people have started doing these cake sheds thinking this is great with nothing to pay. <\/p>\n
“I don’t know why these two areas of the council don’t communicate with each other either.”<\/p>\n
The council has encouraged anyone contemplating establishing a cake shed to seek guidance from both its licensing and food services teams beforehand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A baker has been forced to abandon her plans to sell leftover cakes from a roadside honesty box…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":642459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[35884,84,59,50,2331,56,54,55,16979],"class_list":["post-642458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-across-the-uk","tag-business","tag-gb","tag-news","tag-sgg","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-yorkshire"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}