Issue - meetings

To consider the report of the Head of Public Protection which presents the draft revised Street Trading Policy and fee structure for approval by the Committee for consultation.

The Food, Licensing and Markets Manager presented the report of the Head of Public Protection which invited the Committee to approve the draft revised Street Trading Policy and fee structure for purposes of public consultation.

She circulated a revised version of Appendix 4 which compared the proposed fees with those of other Local Authorities in the County together with Bristol and Bath.

She drew Members’ attention to the significant changes in the policy detailed at paragraph 3.8 of the report and particularly noted the proposal to introduce a requirement for applicants for a new street trading consent to obtain a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) certificate.

She advised that the fees and charges for street trading in Gloucester were last changed in 2008 and the proposed fees were laid out in Appendix 3 of the report.

A Member questioned the requirement for mobile street traders to remain on a particular site for no more than 20 minutes and to move out of an area with a radius of 400 metres away. She noted that 400 metres would mean that such traders would have to leave the City centre.

The Food, Licensing and Markets Manager explained that events such as street markets or fairs were dealt with separately and the example quoted of an ice cream vendor in the Park was operating on private land and had a static consent. The Head of Public Protection undertook to give the matter further consideration.

Another Member was advised that the DBS certificate required would be at the basic level and that provision would be made in the scheme for applications from charities and social enterprise organisations

The Food, Licensing and Markets Manager advised that the chimes used by ice cream vendors were subject to separate legislation and advised those Members who had heard chimes before noon to report the matter with full details.

RESOLVED that

1)    The draft Street Trading Policy be approved for the purposes of public consultation for an eight week period;

2)    The proposed new fee structure for 2017-18 be approved for consultation over a 28 day period.