• 2 June 2011, 10:58

World's first floating ice cream van

The world's first amphibious ice cream van is touring Britain's seaside resorts and waterways.

HMS Flake 99, which has a top speed of five knots, chimes Rod Stewart's We Are Sailing, as it sails along, reports the Daily Mail.

It was created to mark National Ice Cream Week and highlight how vans are being driven off the roads by soaring fuel costs and council red tape.

Driver Dave Mounfield, a stand-up comic from Brighton, is serving up cones to startled sunseekers as the van embarks on its UK tour.

It started off in Blackpool, made its way along the Thames and, after a tour of Britain's beaches, is due to sail across the Channel and on to the canals of Venice next year.

Mr Mounfield said: "I'm the captain of a floating ice cream van. It's crazy! I hope our amphibious van marks the start of a great revival of the ice cream trade on UK shores."

Ice cream manufacturers claim the industry is in meltdown on dry land with the number of vans falling from 20,000 to just 5,000 over the past 50 years.

A growing number of councils ban vans from housing estates, parks and outside schools because of concerns about noise pollution and childhood obesity.

Others have created ice cream selling 'exclusion zones' in town centres, hiked the cost of a van operator's licence and limited how long vans can sound their chimes.

Ice cream firms are also being hit hard by the rising cost of the ingredients milk and sugar, and record petrol prices.