Newsagents around Earl's Court station fear for their future now new street vendors are selling national newspapers on their patch.
Traditional street vendors and newsagents have watched helplessly as new arrivals dish out The Sun and The Times outside the station in the last six weeks. They are losing sales of more than 40 copies a day on some papers and the situation may get worse if other companies decide to follow suit.
Steve Drewett, 55, who has run a stall outside the station for 37 years, has complained to Kensington and Chelsea Council. He said: "It's killing the trade. I think it's disgusting, it is coming to the stage where it is going to cost you your livelihood."
Peter Mehta, 36, who runs Earl's Court News in the station, said the situation added to the pain caused by free newspaper distributors. "It's a cumulative effect," he said. "It's not illegal but it should be. It's hurting my business and it's not just me."
Kensington and Chelsea Council said its hands were tied. A spokesman said: "The legislation regarding street trading allows us to control free newspapers, which we do, but people selling newspapers from small sites are not subject to the usual controls. We are only able to intervene if the sellers are causing undue interference or inconvenience to persons using the street."
A spokeswoman from News International, parent company of The Times and The Sun, said: "It's just an exercise in increasing the availability of our papers. But newsagents are an important part of the whole picture, and wherever there's been an issue with a vendor we have sought to remove that vendor from the area."
