A barber shop owner claims she was kept in the dark about a mobile stall setting up in direct competition to her.

Natasha Short, who owns the High Street Barber Shop in Braintree, discovered a a mobile barber offering haircuts in nearby Bank Street last Saturday.

She claims Braintree Council should be doing more to support the town’s existing permanent traders.

Natasha, 39, said: “I hadn’t been warned about it at all and customers were coming into the shop telling me, otherwise I wouldn’t have known at all.

“There are enough barbers in Braintree already and we have had two more open in the last week.

“It is unfair on existing businesses and I was extremely annoyed.”