RE the article We're Licked' (LET, May 13), banning ice cream vans from near schools.

Again we see interference from those who want to take freedom of choice away as to what and when the public want to eat.

And what is to stop children going to the nearest shop for the same thing?

Why not go all the way and stop shops opening before school time and have then close for the day before school finishes?

Then we can all sit in front of the TV and become all the more obese because our freedom of being able to enjoy something is limited once again.

If banning ice cream vans from school gates for safety reasons was the excuse, then maybe I would agree.

What people need is educating on matters such as obesity, not banning ice cream vans. This is another government department that feels it has to be seen to be doing something to warrant its existence, wrongly I might add.

L STOTT, Gainsborough Avenue, Burnley.