Agenda item

The report of Kate Golledge (Public Protection Manager Safer Communities and Licensing Team (North and West)) informs the Committee of the progress on the introduction of a single, council-wide consent street trading scheme and seeks commendation of the scheme to Council.

The Committee received an overview of the report from Kate Golledge (Public Protection Manager North and West) and were informed of the results of the second two week public consultation carried out on a revised single council wide street trading consent scheme.

Kate highlighted the following:

·                     That there was  a stepped legal process to follow to introduce a street trading consent scheme to Wiltshire; and that additional recommendations would be put forward to enable this process to commence;

·                     The Committee would need to recommend to Council that they adopt powers under Schedule 4 of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982 to apply to the Wiltshire Council area.  The Council would then need to state their intention to designate all streets in the Wiltshire Council area as consent streets;

·                     That a second two week public consultation took place between 26 July and 12 August 2011 and that the revised scheme incorporated the changes requested by the Committee at their meeting on 5 April 2011;

·                     A meeting took place between the Licensing Manager and representatives of  the Neighbourhood Service Team to ensure that any changes to the scheme did not duplicate any existing powers available to Wiltshire Council Highways Officers to control trading on the highway;

·                     It was likely that the scheme would not be in place until 1 April 2012 following completion of all the relevant steps;

The Committee then considered the revised draft of the Harmonised Street Trading Scheme (Appendix 1 to the report) in detail, and it was,

Resolved:

1.         To make the following amendments to the revised draft of the    Harmonised Street Trading Scheme:

(i)            Glossary – page 1.  Definition of ‘street’ to be changed to the statutory definition ‘includes any road, footway or other area to which the public have access with or without payment’.  Also change Consent street to read ‘Consent street.  A street in which street trading is prohibited without the consent of the Council.’

(ii)          Page 3 – add the text marked in italics:

            As a matter of Council policy a Street Trading Consent will not be required for the following activities:

·        Trading on private land (including land owned, leased or maintained by a town/parish council) where this is not a road, road lay-by, car-park or industrial estate with public access (vehicular or pedestrian) or within 10 metres of any road, road lay-by, car-park or industrial estate with public access (vehicular or pedestrian)

·        trading in a market run by Wiltshire Council (for current information on Council run markets please visit www.wiltshire.gov.uk/communityandliving/markets)

(iii)         Page 5 – Add a footnote which gives details of Section 7 of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976 as referred to in the text.

(iv)         Page 6 – Under bullet point entitled Daily Street Trading Consent remove the following text ‘The Council charges a higher fee for consent to trade on Saturdays.’

(v)          Page 7 – Under Consultation on applications replace ‘Ward Councillors’ with ‘Divisional Councillors’ and replace ‘Members of the public’ with ‘Placing the information in the public domain via the Wiltshire Council website – www.wiltshire.gov.uk’

(vi)         Page 7 – Amend the text in bold under consultations on applications to read ‘Full consultation will not take place on applications for Block Street Trading Consents for community events, although if necessary the Authorised officer may informally approach any of the consultees.’

(vii)       Page 8 – Under bullet point entitled ‘Avoidance of nuisance’ add ‘litter’ to the list.  Under bullet point entitled ‘Planning Permission’ add clarification that planning permission relates to a change of use application.  Add a new bullet point entitled ‘Existing consents’ – The location of any existing consents will be taken into account when considering applications.  Also remove last sentence on page 8 ‘Equal weight will be applied to all criteria’.

(viii)      Page 14 – Add a footnote to give details of the legislation referred to in relation to offences.

(ix)         In Appendix 2 (pages 17/18) which relates to the Street Trading fees the tables be amended to read as follows –

Town traders

All other traders

(x)          That wording be added to the scheme in an appropriate place to give information on the legislation on the sale of vehicle on the highway.

(xi)         That wording be added to the scheme in an appropriate place to give information on the reasons why an application may be declined.

(xii)       That any relevant provisions be added to the Guidelines to comply with the Council’s Equality Act duties. 

2.            That the Licensing Committee support the changes proposed by the Licensing Team and Neighbourhood Services to produce an integrated and co-ordinated response to the issues raised by the public consultation.

That the Licensing Committee recommend to Council on 8 November 2011:

3.            That they adopt Schedule 4 of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982 to apply to the Wiltshire Council area.

4.            That they adopt the revised Consent Street Trading Scheme as presented.

5.            That they state their intention to designate all streets in the Wiltshire Council area as consent streets.