When Paul Dawson looks at Aberdeen beach today he is reminded of the words of his grandfather, Alfred Codona.
“My grandfather always said, there’s nothing wrong with competition, but it has to be fair competition,” says Paul citing the man behind the Codona’s entertainment empire.
According to Paul, the beach – home to a hodge-podge of independent businesses even before Alfred Codona started his amusement park on Queen’s Links in 1969 – is no longer a fair place to trade.
From the Pavilion Cafe on the Esplanade, the restaurant he has run for 18 years, Paul has witnessed the influx of food trucks and other mobile catering vans to the beachfront, particularly at the Fittie end towards the entrance to Aberdeen harbour.
Under the shadow of the big ships and ferries, a growing number of food outlets serve beachgoers everything from vegan fish and chips to speciality coffee.
Business has been brisk thanks mostly to word of mouth, and more vendors have moved in. Even Paul was keen to open his own food truck under the Pavilion Cafe name.
But those plans are now on hold.
Amid wider concerns about litter and parking congestion caused by the food trucks, Paul is worried that that the beach has reached saturation point.
Those concerns intensified this month when an Aberdeen City councillor, in a meeting to grant licences for more beach-front food trucks, warned that if all licences were granted there would be 26 in total.
The number startled Paul.
“It’s out of control,” he says. “Am I going to get a living if there are 26 vans down there? No, I’m not.”
An unequal trade on Aberdeen beach
Underpinning Paul’s frustration is the high cost of running a bricks-and-mortar restaurant on the beach compared to operating a food truck.
Along with business rates, the cafes pay utilities and other overheads. There is an additional cost for bins that Paul says is about £8,000 a year.
In contrast, the food trucks pay £195 a year to renew their licence and do not have to pay business rates or for litter removal.
The balance of responsibility, says Paul, is all wrong.
“What do the vans provide for the beach?” he adds. “They don’t pay rent, they don’t pay rates. They add in to the beach nothing.”
‘They’re more expensive than we are’
Kevin Codona is also worried about the number of food trucks on the beach.
The Codona family member has been trading on the beachfront since 1974 and operates four restaurant units including the Promenade Cafe chip shop.
And though he can see the benefits the food trucks bring, he believes a limit has to be set.
“There’s just far too many down there,” he says.
Kevin pays rent to the council, a fee that has recently increased. Meanwhile, he’s just paid £26,000 for a new ice-cream machine to keep pace with the uptick in competition.
But though he thinks the situation is “a little unfair”, Kevin is keen to stress he doesn’t want to stop anyone from running a business.
He even likes the food coming out of the food trucks.
“They’re more expensive than we are,” he says. “But they’ve got a bit of diversity there and the product is mostly quality.”
This month’s council meeting on the food trucks agreed to defer the new licences pending a public consultation.
Councilors cited the potentially high number of trucks, but also highlighted local concerns over litter, a matter that the cafes also raise.
“There’ll be litter everywhere,” says Paul at Pavilion Cafe. “And anybody could roll up. You could get rogue traders for example. How do they actually police it?”
As for the argument that the food trucks have turned the beach into a destination for Aberdonians, Paul again harks back to his grandfather.
“It’s already a destination,” he says. “It’s been a destination since 1970.”
