WORCESTER’S much-loved jacket potato van has returned to the city’s streets just months after its previous owner died.

Kevin Kolb served thousands of customers from the van in the High Street for more than 20 years. He died, aged 57, in March after suffering a stroke.

His van is now open for business once again after it was bought by Graham Cook, who previously ran Cookies mobile catering van in Warndon Business Park.

Mr Cook was featured in your Worcester News after he won a battle to keep serving the industrial estate, despite opposition from highways officials and police traffic advisers.

As we reported last July, Worcester city councillors granted him a licence to sell burgers from Stanier Street after hearing that he had been trading on the estate without complaint for 14 years.

However, following another hearing in March, that licence was permanently revoked because of traffic issues, so Mr Cook decided to invest in the potato van.

He said: “The council made a decision to permanently revoke the licence this time, putting me out of work. So I managed to buy the business off Mr Kolb’s widow and opened it up.

“It was so strange as the licence hearing was the day before I read in the paper about Mr Kolb’s death.

“This is totally different. I’m going from cooking bacon, sausages, eggs, tomatoes and beans to having to cook 250 spuds.”

Mr Cook said he would run the business in the same way as Mr Kolb except for introducing a smaller portion for people with smaller appetites.

Mr Kolb had famously refused to sell small portions, claiming his potatoes were “the world’s biggest and best jacket potatoes”.