A GROUP of burger van owners have launched a legal bid to overturn a ban on them selling snacks to children near school gates.

The business owners have taken North Lanarkshire Council to court after they were hit by a 250 metre exclusion zone halting them setting up outside schools.

Council bosses, who are responsible for 160 schools, imposed the ban last year and claimed they had a moral duty given major problems with childhood obesity across Scotland.

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

A civil hearing at Hamilton Sheriff Court yesterday heard Ms McCluskey and Mr Kerr have a van near Bellshill Academy, Ms Hardie worked near St Aidan's High School in Wishaw, and Ms Kane had 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 which they want overturned.

In court, Scott Blair QC said: "Everybody has the right to choose what kind of food they want to put into their body, no matter how healthy or undesirable that food may be.

"Those under 16 may well be influenced by what their parents eat but everybody has a choice as to what they want to eat.

"There may be nutritional guidelines on school meals but pupils have the right to choose to bring food in from outside of the school."

Ms Kane, 45, said her van had been in Coatbridge for 25 years when a new school was built nearby.

She said: "My van has been here without any complaint but eight years ago they built the new school right next to us.

"I didn't even get a letter telling me they were going to ban vans from outside schools and I had to read about it in a newspaper which was terrible.

"My licence is for the industrial estate and that's where I am. The fact they built a school next to it has nothing to do with me and of course some of the children visit me, I'm not going to turn them away.

"There is no way that snack vans can be the only cause of obesity given that cafes, chip shops, takeaways and places like McDonald's and KFC are all selling stuff at lunch times to school kids and and they aren't being banned by the council.

"But to blame us just smacks of victimisation and that is why we are fighting it."

She added: "I've suffered sleepless nights thinking about what could happen if the council win the case and I am praying the sheriff sees common sense and sides with us, we are only trying to make a living for ourselves."

Last year Councillor Jim Logue, convener of North Lanarkshire's learning and leisure committee, said: "We have a moral duty to do everything we can to look after children's health.

"We accept that this is not a complete solution to the problem of obesity but we can't sit on our hands here."

In 2009 Glasgow City Council introduced a 300-metre ban with limited success while East Ayrshire Council imposed a 250 metre ban zone after them.

A spokesman for North Lanarkshire Council said: "It would be inappropriate to comment on a live court action."

Sheriff Vincent Smith is expected to deliver a judgement on the case at a later date.