OPEN LETTER: Why We Are Boycotting Richmond and Wandsworth’s "Diesel-First" Procurement Culture

SMTE_-_Catering_provision.docx  

Volume_1_-_Invitation_to_Stage_1__PSQ_.docx

Volume_2_-_Specification_DRAFT.docx

Because Richmond and Wandsworth operate a Shared Staffing Arrangement, the rigged, diesel-protecting tender for Ice Cream and Catering Concessions (CPT 3746) was issued by the Joint Procurement Team operating out of Wandsworth Town Hall. We are escalating this to both Wandsworth and Richmond’s Climate and Enterprise teams, as this anti-innovation, high-emission procurement culture clearly infects both boroughs.

Richmond upon Thames proudly markets itself as London’s greenest borough. Just recently, the Council celebrated an elite 'A' rating from the CDP for global climate leadership and is currently asking the public to help shape its ambitious Climate and Nature Strategy for 2025-2030.

Yet, your latest joint procurement exercise (CPT 3746) proves this public eco-posturing is entirely hollow.

Residents across both boroughs are deeply climate-conscious and consistently demand cleaner air for their communities. Yet, behind closed doors, your procurement team has made a decision on their behalf to actively protect high-emission, idling diesel ice cream vans while locking out 100% net-zero, community-funding innovation.

Today, Tastes Good. Does Good. is formally boycotting this tender and all future tenders issued by Richmond and Wandsworth Councils. Based on these procurement documents, your operations fail our ethical client and supply chain audit.

Earlier this year, the Council carried out a Soft Market Testing Exercise (SMTE) which suppliers replied to in good faith. The documentation gave the distinct impression that the Council was eager for alternative solutions, asking for input on how to guarantee success and identifying new trading locations. The Council’s own draft specification explicitly claimed the contract would not be split into lots.

This was false. The final tender deliberately fragments the contract, gifting the four main sites (Lot 1) a secure 3-year term with an option for 2 more, while dumping any modern food innovation into a precarious 1-year "trial" on a single site (Lot 2) that the Council can suspend at any time.

The hypocrisy embedded in your tender documents is staggering:

• The "Bicycle" Lie: The Council attempts to appear progressive, stating: "The vehicle does not need to be a ‘traditional’ ice cream van; it may be that a bicycle is more suitable". Yet, in the mandatory Pass/Fail section of the tender, you require applicants to upload DVLA "Vehicle Registration details" and a "ULEZ Compliance Certificate". You cannot register a bicycle or a net-zero push-cart with the DVLA. The procurement team wrote the mandatory legal requirements specifically around the incumbent’s registered motor vehicles, rendering your claims of welcoming "alternative" green options a complete sham.
• The "Traditional" Gatekeeper: Volume 4 of your tender mandates a Pass/Fail confirmation that operators will provide "traditional Soft Serve ice cream". By using the word "traditional" as a mandatory legal metric, you are deliberately disqualifying modern, premium, and zero-emission multi-brand operators to protect the status quo.
• The Diesel Loophole & Idling Hypocrisy: In Volume 2, you claim to require vehicles with the "lowest CO2 emissions". Breaking its own rules, Richmond Council has enforced anti-idling legislation since March 2019, issuing fines to drivers who refuse to switch off their engines and heavily promoting its "Engine Off, Every Stop" campaign to fight toxic nitrogen oxides (NOx). Yet, your own Street Trading Conditions explicitly carve out noise exemptions for "Vehicles which sell perishable foodstuffs (eg ice cream)" allowing loudspeakers to be played between noon and 7.00pm. While you fine normal drivers for idling, you actively protect a business model that relies on idling diesel engines to power soft-serve machines next to children’s playgrounds.
• The "Social Value" Farce: The tender claims that 10% of the scoring will be based on "Social Value". Yet, by deliberately structuring the contract to protect traditional diesel vans, the Council is rejecting our model—which structurally diverts 15% of revenue to local food banks and creates London Living Wage jobs. Instead, the Council is awarding "social value" points to a business model whose primary community impact is pumping toxic diesel exhaust into the lungs of children on Richmond Green.

Our business operates award-winning 100% battery and solar-powered, zero-emission ice cream and food carts. We operate without diesel, without generators, without idling, and without high-cost utility hook-ups. Furthermore, our model automatically diverts 15% of our top-line revenue into a Local Wealth Fund to combat food insecurity, alleviate poverty, and create local jobs.

We intended to propose a self-sustaining, net-zero commercial partnership that would generate tangible wealth for the boroughs and create up to five local micro-business owners. Instead, we found an engineered tick-box exercise designed to ensure aging diesel vans remain parked on the Riverside.

We suspected something wasn’t right when asked to sign the Council's Soft Market Testing Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)—a tool clearly used to gag innovators from complaining after the fact while procurement rules are rewritten to favour incumbents. Because we refused to sign it, we are legally unencumbered, and we are making this public.

If any Richmond or Wandsworth resident, environmental group, or local media outlet wishes to see the raw tender documents proving this diesel-friendly greenwashing, please contact us directly. We will gladly share the files.

If Richmond and Wandsworth Councils prefer to protect idling diesel engines over providing their own residents with zero-emission infrastructure, that is their choice. Had we tendered, it would have cost us and other innovative bidders significant time and money that we would never recoup in a predetermined race. We will instead direct our efforts, our investments, and our community wealth funds to local authorities that actually practice the climate action they preach.

Greg Wixted

Founder,

Tastes Good. Does Good