Gavin Murray, 47, opened his Just Ice stall four months ago but he has been told by council chiefs in Derby to apply for a licence, The Telegraph reports.

He said: “Rum and raisin is an old classic and has always been there. They are two flavours that go together really well and the people of Derby definitely love it, we get people asking for it at least once a week.

“It’s especially popular among people who are a little older than teenagers.

“Our first step would be to run a trial on putting our rum in at the start of pasteurisation process and hopefully that will burn off the alcohol content, but leave that delicious real-rum flavour.

“Once we have done our trial, we will send it off to the lab for testing and hopefully we can get rum and raisin back for the Derby public who love it so much.

“I understand the council’s comments, they just have to go by the law, that is what the law says and we can’t really argue with that.

“We have got to stick to that, alcohol is a dangerous substance, so we want to respect and honour that.

“It would be nice if ice cream had an exemption, but that is probably a bigger thing.

“But I think you would have to eat a lot of it to be affected by the booze - you probably would be sick before you felt the effects of the alcohol.”

Derby city councillor Mick Barker said: “This particular ice cream recipe contains more than 0.5 per cent alcohol, meaning it’s classed as alcoholic under the Licensing Act, and a licence is needed.

“Rum and raisin is a classic. If Just Ice applies for a license they will be able to sell this flavour, no problem.”