ALTHOUGH the row over the selling of ice cream in and around the centre of Worcester is absolutely nothing like the notorious Glasgow “ice cream wars” of the 1980s. it still seems to have stirred up a considerable amount of acrimony.

The background is simple: an entrepreneur applied to the city council to sell ice cream and lemonade from a tricycle in the city centre, and the proposal was vigorously objected to by at least two others who ply the same trade.

The newcomer was granted the licence he sought, but the case does focus attention on the question of exactly whet the city’s council’s role in the process should be.

Should the city council be acting to protect the existing traders, who may have worked long and hard to build up their existing businesses?

Or should they, as they in fact did, allow the newcomer to try his hand in the trade, with the possibilty that the existing traders may lose part, or indeed all, of the trade and are forced out of business.

Any free-market ideologue would go for the latter, saying that anyone should be given the chance to succeed, with the well-understood proviso that they may not in fact succeed.

This, it is said, would benefit the public, not only because they would have more choice, but also because the competition would force each trader to stay on top of their game and to aim for a consistently high quality of the products that they sell.

The free market ideologue would not argue with this, saying that the customer comes first.

The term ‘producer capture’ described the situation where the producers of a good or service is more motivated to work for their own good rather than the good of their customers, a situation that most people would think is not a great one.

Competition is the way to avoid this situation, they say.

And so we can expect the residents of Worcester, as well as visitors, to enjoy a greater quality and quantity of ice cream in the future than before.

An alternative, of course, is to allow anyone who wants to set up in business without having to get permission from the authorities; this need not mean the end of regulatory authority over matters such as health and safety.

I wonder if this approach has ever been tried anywhere?