‘There’s no streetlights’: North Yorkshire restaurant told to stop driving diners home

Ruth Hansom photographed in 2022 at the Princess of Shoreditch, London, where she previously worked as head chef. Photograph: Amit Lennon/The Observer

It was when people were bringing a change of shoes to walk home that a couple running an acclaimed restaurant in North Yorkshire thought: “Actually, why don’t we give you a lift?”

But the arrangement, loved by customers, has fallen foul of the council, which has informed Ruth Hansom and her husband, Mark, that they were in breach of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976.