32 lords and Fabio Capello leap to defence of paper vendor
A campaign to save a newspaper vendor facing closure after nearly 30 years is being backed by more than 30 members of the House of Lords - and the England football manager.
Council chiefs are trying to ban Mark O'Brien, 50, from selling newspapers on his pitch outside Sloane Square Tube station.
Kensington and Chelsea says he faces prosecution if he continues to trade beyond 7 December.
But the move has triggered outrage in the area, with 32 lords and England boss Fabio Capello signing a 1,000-strong petition against it.
One of the lords has told Mr O'Brien that if the council does not reverse its decision, he is considering raising the issue in the House of Lords.
Lord Spencer-Churchill, Lord Vivian and Lord Delaware are among Mr O'Brien's supporters. Chelsea resident Lord Spencer-Churchill said: "It's a travesty of justice.
"He's been selling me papers for 20 years and you get some little bureaucrat come along who takes it away - and without giving him a reason. He's serving the community, always kind, always friendly.
"Life will be a lot duller if he's not about. These kind of people are the great characters that make up what Kensington and Chelsea is about."
Mr O'Brien has had a pitch on land owned by Transport for London for 29 years but he was asked to move on the grounds of a 1990 by-law which bans him from trading with customers standing on the adjacent council-owned land.
But despite offering to pay the council on top of his £375-a-month fee to TfL, the council has refused to grant him a licence.
A council spokesman said: "Following a review of the legal status of traders on Sloane Square, the council concluded that the street trading on the forecourt of Sloane Square Underground station was unlicensed and therefore unlawful in its current form.
"The council has written to the trader about this. We are listening to what he and others have to say about the matter."
But Mr O'Brien, who lives in Ealing with his wife Maggie and two children Liam, 17, and Nicola, 20, today vowed to put up a fight. Local residents staged a protest this week to show their support for Mr O'Brien.
He said: "If they shut me down, that's it, I'll have to go on the dole. But what I'll miss more than anything else is the people I've got to know.
"The kids that used to come past here years ago are now lawyers and brokers and come past on their way to the City.
"I don't know what the council's underlying reason is - they've had 20 years to implement this law."
