A BID to allow burger vans to keep selling snacks near school gates would be the same as allowing a lap dancing club to operate next to a convent, a court has heard.

North Lanarkshire Council, which is responsible for 160 schools, imposed a ban on vans last year and claimed they had a 'moral duty' given major problems with childhood obesity across Scotland.

A group of van workers have taken the council to court after they were hit by a 250 metre exclusion zone halting them setting up outside schools.

Karen McCluskey, Stephen Kerr, Patricia Hardie, Annmarie Pratt and Caroline Kane have taken on a legal team to try and beat the ban.

Yesterday the final session of a civil hearing at Hamilton Sheriff Court heard advocate Robert Skinner claim the council had the right to stop certain services being offered in specific areas.

He said if local authorities were not allowed to intervene it could lead to pornography or legal highs being sold outside schools.

He added: "The pursuer's argument is that the council have no interest to interfere with the precise types of items sold or, in the case of food, its quality or nutritional value.

"If the pursuer's analysis is correct then the licensing authority is powerless to prevent girlie magazines being sold outside secondary schools because sales of such literature and magazines is perfectly legal.

"Or it would be powerless to prevent a lap dancing club being set up next to a convent.

"Whilst there may be no disturbance from a lap dancing club, the council, is entitled to hold that next to a convent is not a suitable place for that precise type of activity.

"Or if a street trader decided to sell legal highs from a van outside a school, the council would be unable to prevent that occurring outside a secondary school on the basis that they are not entitled to regulate in anyway where or what a street trader sells providing what is sold is legal.

"This is misconceived. Whilst not entitled to stop a trader selling only deep fried Mars bars with butter toffee sauce from his van, a licensing committee is entitled to say, given the potential harm to children, you may not do so in the immediate vicinity of a school.

"It follows that the committee in pursuit of a general social aim of improving the health of our children is entitled to look closely at the type of food on offer from the burger vans which they have the power to regulate."

Karen McCluskey and Stephen Kerr have a van near Bellshill Academy, Patricia Hardie worked near St Aidan's High School in Wishaw, and Caroline Kane has a van near St. Andrew's High School, Coatbridge.

They have all claimed their customers and their own human rights have been infringed by the ban.

Scott Blair, representing the workers, said: "The extreme examples which have been given underline the lack of logical or rational approach taken.

"We are dealing with food in a specific context and the examples given are not relevant.

"This is a naked attempt by this local authority to suggest it has power to determine the type and quality of food that can be sold by a street trader.

"There is simply no such power.

"This is an excessive measure being imposed on these traders.

"The policy is fundamentally flawed to the point that it should not be applied."

Last night Ms Kane, 45, said: "I hope common sense prevails. My life has been in limbo sine this happened and I've been worried sick."

Sheriff Vincent Smith will issue a judgement at a later date