Owners of a coffee shop hosted in a bus are locked in a planning battle with a council which says they have no right to be there.

The owners of the Moving Mug in Tunbridge Wells say support from the community has been “touching”, but some customers think the council should be more supportive of the business.

The Moving Mug is a coffee shop run out of a bus in Hawkenbury, near Tunbridge Wells.

The rolling cafe was built by Maddy Harris and brothers Toby and Josh Jones, who dub themselves online the “professional idiots”.

Boasting millions of views and followers on TikTok and Instagram, the trio spent £25,000 converting the 20-year-old bus into a cafe and filmed it for social media.

It is now co-owned and run by their friend Luke Derbyshire and his girlfriend Neive Taylor, who have more than 55,000 followers on their Instagram account for the business.

Open since November last year, the vehicle stands in the car park of the Hawk and Berry pub.

However, Tunbridge Wells council recently sent a letter to the entrepreneurial couple saying the pub car park did not have planning permission for a business to operate from it.

Ms Taylor, 21, explained: “We had someone come and visit us and tell us that because of planning permissions that we weren’t using the car park for its intended purpose – even though it's private land and the owner of the car park is completely happy to have us here.

“When we first heard this from the council we were worried – maybe people are complaining, maybe it’s not wanted in the area - it was a scary week,” she said.

Customers recommended they start a petition, which they did and ended up with more than 700 signatures in 24 hours.

It currently has more than 900.

Ms Taylor and her boyfriend know the bus needs repairs to its brakes before it can be moved.

“When the repairs are done we can move the bus somewhere else – then we’re road legal. If we’re forced off of the land obviously we’re risking our insurance.”

“It feels like it’s a big part of the community at the moment and the support has been quite touching.”

“Luke and I are baristas, we love coffee, and we didn’t set up to become the heart of the community but it is something that Hawkenbury, this area in Tunbridge Wells needs.

“Most of our business is regulars – professional dog walkers who come for their lunchtime, mums and dads bringing their children after school for hot chocolates, people at local offices coming for their lunch breaks.”

The pair asked the council for an extension after being originally given seven days to leave the site, and now have been told they have until March 10.

“It still is cutting it quite short and we realise that wherever we go we might have the same problem,” Ms Taylor explained.

The duo hope to take the cafe on the road in the Summer and travel around, eventually taking it to festivals to ply their trade.

Mr Derbyshire, 23, said: “To be told you have to move because of what we were told explicitly is a “grey area” I feel like it’s quite unsulting to people who are trying to start a small business.

“It also feels like a waste of the council’s resources to be honest.”

“It’s almost impossible to run a successful small business in 2025,” he continued.

“We were lucky enough to be literally given this entire business for free -the bus, the coffee bars all of this was a gift from my friends which is just unbelievable.

“But even with that we’re making such small profit margins

“The fact that they enforcing something like this goes to show they aren’t particualry ambitious to support local businesses.”

Kris Boyes, a customer, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “I think it’s a great shame that the council’s not really supporting a small business.

“These guys are doing great and I think they just need all the help they can get really.

“We have been speaking to the owners since the first complaint was received to try to find a way to resolve the situation without the need for formal enforcement action…”

“They’re obviously bringing the community together - there’s not really a shop in the area and certainly for people like myself it’s easy to stop by, I think they’re doing a great job here.”

A spokesperson for Tunbridge Wells council said: “We first received a complaint about the Moving Mug in December and others have followed since.

“We have been speaking to the owners since the first complaint was received to try to find a way to resolve the situation without the need for formal enforcement action.

“As the Moving Mug is parked permanently it means planning permission is required for it to be there. If the owners of the Moving Mug would like to remain at the site they will need to apply for planning permission.’