Agenda item

Members received a report that sought approval for the post-consultation Street Trading Policy, to take affect from 1 April 2023, having previously approved a draft policy at the previous meeting of the Licensing Committee. The purpose of the Policy was to set out how the Council would consider applications for street trading consents, with the objective of encouraging street trading. The Policy was widely consulted on, through the Council website and Social Medias in addition to direct consultation with a number of stakeholders as listed in Annex 3 of the report.

Amendments to the draft policy had been made in response to representations received. These related to highway safety, including illuminated signage, clarification of the arrangements for consulting on applications, considering alternative town centre sites in future and the coordinating of street trading on market days.

The Committee was also asked to approve a new street trading designation resolution, increasing the Council’s control on street trading in the Borough by making all streets not listed as consent streets as prohibited streets. The revised list of prohibited streets removed The Square Bagshot, Dean Parade and Heather Ridge Arcade from the prohibited list.

Following discussion, a number of issues were raised by Members are were as follows:

·         The Council cannot issue consents to applicants under the age of 17 due to legislative restrictions.

·         Social Media and other public sources of information aside from local newspapers should be used to give public notice. Publication in a local paper is a legal requirement.

RESOLVED that

(i)   the revised draft Street Trading policy at Annex 1 is approved to take effect from 1st April 2023; and

(ii)  the revised street designation resolution contained in the public notice shown at Annex 2 to the agenda report be approved to take effect from 1st April 2023 and the approval be publicised by means of a further public notice for 2 consecutive weeks in a local newspaper.