'We could have communicated better' council apology to Tamworth's Spudman following pitch row

There was uproar on social media when baked potato vendor Ben Newman, known as Spudman, revealed that his town centre pitch along with others were being earmarked for relocation as part of a regeneration scheme. And a petition to retain the the much-loved lunchtime spot has so far amassed more than 98,000 signatures in just four days.

Following talks with the trader on Tuesday, Tamworth Council's chief executive Stephen Grabriel said: “We met with Ben Newman (Spudman) this morning to address his concerns.

"Our discussion was positive and constructive and we are currently looking into any previous contractual arrangements. We will continue to keep these discussions open.

"We acknowledge that we could have communicated better with our street traders and for this we apologised. We are committed to improving our engagement in the future, particularly our efforts to make St Editha’s Square a welcoming public space.

"We are eager to collaborate with all traders and businesses and will be reaching out more in the upcoming weeks.”

Posting an update today (February 19) on Facebook, Ben said: "I met with the chief exec of Tamworth Council. I must say, very nice bloke. The first thing they did was apologise. 

"The good things are that they can not force us out of our old contracts so we're safe in them and nobody can take away our transferable asset. That makes me happy. 

"The other two is that they are going to see what they can do about the flowerbed plan and they will help me go through the process of a planning application for the shipping container."

"The chief exec was a really nice guy. Let's hope they make the right decision on the flowerbed."