TV presenter Andi Peters has backed a Putney family’s appeal to their MP to free their van from a Thai border ban, giving them 24 hours to make it count.
The family behind Artisan Coffee on Upper Richmond Road launched a Change.org petition this week after Thai border officials blocked their van Daisy from entering the country. The problem: Daisy has a sink. Thailand classifies vans with sinks as motorhomes, requiring a special permit, and the Harrisons are in the middle of a 9,000-mile overland drive from London to Perth.
As the 11 May story on Putney.news reported, every land crossing between Thailand and Cambodia has been closed since June 2025, ruling out the obvious workaround. Plan C remains on the table: load Daisy onto a flatbed truck in Laos and transit Thailand without technically touching Thai soil.
Now there is a Plan D.
The petition, which launched on 12 May and reached 607 signatures and 1,086 shares by Thursday, names two targets: Fleur Anderson, Putney’s MP, and Mark Gooding OBE, the British Ambassador to Thailand. Peters, who went to school in Wandsworth, recorded an endorsement video backing the campaign. His message was direct: “You’ve got 24 hours to send a petition.”
The Harrisons need enough signatures before a scheduled meeting with Fleur Anderson to give the petition political weight. Edwin Harrison captured the situation precisely when we first picked up on the problem: “We’ve been trying desperately to convince them that it’s just literally a van with six seats in it. But they saw a sink.”
Edwin, Magda, and their three children have been on the road since the series began in March, when they set off from London carrying a kilogram of Barn Door Blend destined for Magda’s mother in Perth.
You can sign and share the petition at change.org/p/help-daisy-the-van-enter-thailand.
