Braintree railway station is now fully catered for -now a mobile snack bar has been set up next to the newspaper stall.

Newspaper seller Doug Fowler's wife Marguerite has packed-in her cleaning job and is back serving teas, coffees and breakfast to commuters.

The Braintree and Witham Times reported earlier this year how One Railway put the rent up for the refreshment room at the station. Mr and Mrs Fowler were forced to give up the lease, and they set up a newspaper stall outside the station.

One threatened the couple with legal action, stating that they were on railway property -even though they had a trading license.

Undeterred, Mr Fowler then got himself a license to sell papers from the back of a van in the station car park, and because there were no tea and coffee making facilities, Mrs Fowler went to work as a cleaner.

When she left Mr Fowler became lonely, waiting for his wife to return from her cleaning job, so Mrs Fowler bought him a Jack Russell puppy, who he has called Trig, after Trigger in Only Fools and Horses.

Mr Fowler said: "I was a bit on my own, but Trig keeps me company, and all the customers love him.

"I would finish at 10am and have nothing to do, so I take him out for a walk."

Meanwhile the couple decided to invest in a snack van so they could be back working together, and this week Mrs Fowler began trading.

She said: "People have got to get to know I'm back. A lot more of my regulars have been coming back, and the cab drivers love it because they can pull up here now.

"I did enjoy my cleaning job. They were lovely people, but I prefer being here, being with him. I said the dog will have to go now!"

When Mr Fowler closes the newspaper stall at 10am, his wife takes over selling the papers and continues running the snack bar until 1pm every week day.

The couple could be in for some competition in the future however. A One Railway spokesman said: "The unit at Braintree railway station has been taken off the market and that plans for a new cafe are at any early stage of development."

But, Mrs Fowler said: "I can do more in here than I could in the kiosk. We kept tripping the electric. Here I've got a double grill. I've even got a kebab machine -but I'm not going to be doing kebabs.

"One did us a favour really. We won't let them beat us."