The future of ice-cream vans in Oxford looks safe after the city council said it would not be charging sellers for the right to go on their rounds.

Ice-cream sellers who use vans are classed as "roundsmen", in the same category as milkmen, which means they do not have to pay local authorities in order to trade.

But a court case brought by Brighton and Hove Borough Council against a van owner will decide whether they should be classed as street traders. Councils would then be able to demand that van owners pay them for the right to sell ice-cream.

But Warren Tibbetts, street trading enforcement officer for Oxford City Council, says the city council operates a "consent" zone, within which street traders have to apply for permanent pitches. Ice-cream vans are not allowed within this zone but they can trade freely outside of it, and there are no plans to change this.

He says: "If it's outside the consent area we won't interfere with that at all. We will not change our views on that."

John Dykes, who owns ice-cream company Terrys of Oxford, says there is widespread concern in the ice-cream industry about the landmark case at the Royal Courts of Justice in London on February 12.

He says a new ice-cream van costs £45,000 and warns if van sellers have to pay for the right to trade the industry could be finished.

Mr Dykes, a member of the Ice Cream Alliance, which represents the ice-cream industry, says: "There is obviously cause for concern.

"The industry is in a fragile state. If they were charging £2,000 to £3,000, I would say that we would have no new people coming to buy ice cream vans.

"A final charge like that on top would completely wipe it out."