IT would be so very easy to condemn Oxford City Council over its proposal to hold your corner kebab van to a different hygiene standard than normal restaurants.

The proposal is that food vans will not be allowed to trade unless they hold a minimum food hygiene rating of three stars out of five. Restaurants and other eateries will be allowed to continue if they have fewer than three stars.

On the face of it, it is easy to argue you can’t treat businesses within the same industry differently.

The first thing to say is that the vast majority of our food vans have their three stars.

The council’s argument though is that there are differences around the ability to keep constant temperatures and running water.

That would indicate, however, that perhaps the star system itself is flawed because, if there are these differences in the actual delivery of food services on the ground, then that should be reflected in the rating available for the customer to inspect.

But the nub of the matter is that this is all about delivering safe and edible food to the consumer, and anything that aims to lift the minimum you can expect, whether you tuck into a kebab on the kerbside or steak tartare in a restaurant, cannot be too harshly criticised.