Shoreditch cafe owner hit with £100 fine for putting pot plant on pavement

Joe's Kid: the Shoreditch cafe opened last year
Danni Orsi
Hannah Al-Othman14 May 2016

A Shoreditch cafe owner has hit out at "over-officious local government bureaucracy" as she was slapped with £200 worth of fines after putting a pot plant on the pavement.

Danni Orsi, 27, was first hit with a fixed penalty notice earlier this month for “wilful obstruction of the highway” and having an item outside without “authority or a license” after she left a small bay tree opposite her shop.

Ms Orsi opened Joe's Kid in Fashion Street about 18 months ago, named in honour of her late grandfather.

The ornamental shrub was a £75 gift from her mother, which had been purchased from BUNCH, another independent business opposite Hackney Downs station.

She told the Standard she had spoken to the shop keeper opposite, who had agreed to let her place the tree outside his off licence to point customers in her direction.

Business owner: Danni Orsi set up the business in Fashion Street (Konrad Dziedzic )
Konrad Dziedzic

However, she was forced to remove the offending tree from opposite the cafe when officials from Tower Hamlets Council handed down the fine.

Ms Orsi then instead put up a small A board in an attempt to advertise her business, which is hidden away on a corner, but was yesterday hit with another £100 fine.

Ms Orsi told the Standard :"The plants and the A board are the only push to attract attention to my business - I'm not a criminal - I just work seven days a week and love what I do.

"It's ironic that the council allow landlords - understandably - to put scaffolding on a pavement but a start up, independent entrepreneurial businesses like mine - supposedly something the government see as essential for the growth of the British economy - get suffocated by over-officious local government bureaucracy.

First fine: Ms Orsi received a penalty earlier this month for leaving a pot plant on the pavement (Danni Orsi)
Dani Orsi

"This is why it's so hard for independent businesses like me, the council want to contract out - they will end up with a Starbucks on every corner."

She also said she believes the fine the size of the fine is disproportionate, adding: "Obviously you're meant to have licence and I understand that but the pavement outside is very, very small.

"That's why I put it on the other side of the road, where it's larger.

"I just want to know, where did £100 come from? Why not £20 or £50? It's only a £17 A board.

Second fine: Ms Orsi received a fixed penalty yesterday for displaying an A board (Danni Orsi)
Dani Orsi

"That's over two days wages if you're on minimum wage. With small business it's so competitive and you do what you can.

"It's crazy money, impossible bills, it's all too hard, beyond hard.

"I know there are rules and regulations, but where's the humaneness of it all?"

Another local eaterie, the Elmore Jam has started a crowdfunding page, and has so far raised more than £50 to cover the cost of the "unfair" plant pot fine.

Ms Orsi added: "All our local businesses know each other. It's kind of like EastEnders, we're all one big family."

A spokesman from Tower Hamlets Council said: "Any business that places an item on the public highway requires a Public Footway Licence.

"This is to ensure adequate pedestrian movement, whilst also enabling the business to legally place items, or allow an encroachment of their business, onto the public highway, where there is sufficient space.

"Licence applications are readily available from Tower Hamlets Council Market Services."

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