'I’ll eat my hat'

The owner of a world-famous South Lakeland firm has voiced his outrage at the "ever-changing rules from Brussels" that are "strangling" British businesses.

Kendal Mint Cake manufacturer and confectioner, JE Wilson and Sons, was ordered to pay nearly £9,000 this week for not adhering to Environment Agency legislation derived from EU rules which the firm's owner described as "over zealous".

Last year the Kendal-based company was forced to lay off ten workers and its owner told South Lakeland Magistrates Court this week it is still making losses.

Now, owner Andrew Wilson says he will "eat his chocolate hat" if it can be proved that businesses in other EU member states have to follow rules as stringently as in Britain.

Mr Wilson's firm is renowned for producing not only the famous mint cake but also novelty items such as canned Lakeland air, and chocolate sheep droppings.

Mr Wilson said that over the past few years the company has had to pay out tens of thousands of pounds to comply with EU directives - only for the rules to then change.

He said: "The regulations we have to comply with constantly change quite dramatically - it is as though they are making them up as they go along. At one point everyone working within the food environment had to have passed a hygiene exam, meaning that we had to pay for everybody in the company to take it. But after a bit they realised that it was completely unworkable and after six months or a year they changed it to one person in a factory."

Mr Wilson said that EU rules now required the percentage of ingredients, such as peppermint oil in Kendal mint cake, to be added to the existing ingredients list. The firm makes 450 products and to alter the packaging for all of them had cost around £11,000.

"We are trying to stick to the law so I think that that counts for something. But there are a lot of companies within our own industry in other EU states and they are not having to abide by the same stringent rules."

He added: "If anyone can prove that they are doing the same form filling as we are, then I will eat my chocolate hat. We have already spoken to some manufacturers in these countries and when I ask them if they have complied with the directives they just shrug their shoulders.

"If I poured peppermint oil into the River Kent and killed 1,000 fish, I would be the first to put my hands up, but UK companies are being strangled by the Government's over-zealous view of EU regulations."

Westmorland and Lons-dale MP Tim Collins supported Mr Wilson's views and said that he would raise the issue at a meeting with Department of Trade and Industry ministers.

Mr Collins said: "There is a tendency in this country of gold leafing EU regulations to the detriment of British business. Similar regulations on the Continent are either being ignored or blatantly flouted, with no punishment being administered by the member state. British businesses are playing cricket but business on the Continent is playing rugby."

Environment Agency spokeswoman Joanne Shepherd said that she was unable to comment on the way that EU directives were interpreted in other countries. She said: "It is our role to enforce the legislation and we do take any environmental crimes very seriously. We would rather help a company comply in the first place with the law rather than prosecute them."

n Comment, P12.