It is believed that at least 10 unlicensed ice-cream vendors have left the shopping strip in the last month since they were slapped with orders to go.

The National Environment Agency (NEA) has also stepped up warnings against roadside pedlars hawking sundries from tissue paper to cheap wallets, belts, toys and handbags.

Their presence turns Singapore's premier shopping belt into a low-class 'pasar malam', or night bazaar, along with the buskers and ear-piercing road shows, the Orchard Road Business Association complained recently.

A Straits Times check on Monday found eight ice cream wagons along the 800-metre stretch between Orchard and Somerset MRT stations. Three did not have a licence permitting them to take their mobile stands anywhere on the island.

The only roadside hawkers allowed on Orchard Road are those who hold the island-wide licences. But those blanket licenses were no longer issued after 1974 and only 35 are in circulation. They lapse when the licence holder dies.

The illegal ice-cream sellers on Orchard Road typically hold licences which allow them to sell their sweet treats in suburban housing estates. But many told The Straits Times that business out there cannot support a livelihood.

Five ice cream sellers with Tanjong Pagar Town Council licences told The Straits Times they had been operating in Orchard Road for about five years because business is poor elsewhere.

An NEA spokesman said: 'These street hawkers had agreed to confine their business within their Town Council housing estates when they were first issued the licences. They should abide by this condition.'

NEA has issued 11 written warnings this year to illegal hawkers on Orchard Road, compared with 32 for the whole of last year. Licences are suspended after three warnings. If the suspension is ignored, the licence is revoked.

Read the full story in Tuesday's edition of The Straits Times.