A couple who run a well-known burger van are “in limbo” over whether they will have to close the business they have run for 20 years.

Gordon and Tracy Tibbles, who own the food van outside Morrisons in Stirling Way, have been told they may have to leave their spot due to new parking rules.

In February, Hertsmere Borough Council launched a consultation over whether to make the slip-road a “no trading spot” after concerns about illegal parking, litter and traffic.

The consultation ended last month and the couple, who have never missed a day of work, are panicking about the business's uncertain future.

Father-of-five Mr Tibbles now fears the couple, who have been married for 17 years, could be told to leave their spot without any warning.

He added: “We are being kept in the dark about this - but surely after being here for 20 years they have to give us a bit of notice.

“Without any money, I am worried we won’t be able to keep up with the mortgage repayments and could even end up getting our house repossessed.

“I’ve never been on benefits and the thought that we might have to is just horrible. After paying our taxes and respecting the council’s rules for all this time, it is a joke.

“Parking spaces for burger vans are like gold dust - there is rarely anything available so finding somewhere else to go is out of the question.

“It feels like being punched. It is really stressing me out.”

The van is parked opposite a notorious accident hot-spot at Stirling Corner, Barnet, which many drivers admit to avoiding because it is “terrifying”.

But the 62-year-old, who is campaigning to make the area safer, said crashes tend to happen on the other side of the roundabout to the van.

Earlier this year, the couple started a petition to try to save their business  and have so far been backed by 3,120 people.

Mum-of-four Mrs Tibbles, who lives with her husband in Stevenage, said: “We are sitting on a ticking time bomb here. It is terrifying really, this place is my life.

“We have both worked so hard to make this place successful and now it could all be tossed down the drain.

“It will wreck everything. It is our only source of income - I have no idea what we would do for money without this place. It is all we know.”

A statement from Hertsmere Borough Council said a report is being prepared detailing the results of the consultation.

It will go to the council’s executive committee in the next few months, and the council promised to inform the Tibbles once a date for the meeting has been set.