Report of the Director of Early Intervention and Support (enclosed)

The Director of Early Intervention and Support submitted a report for the Licensing and Public Safety Committee to consider the consultation responses to the draft Street Trading Policy and agree the timescale for review of the Policy.

The Street Trading Policy refers to the General Safeguarding, Suitability and Convictions Policy that was determined earlier in the meeting by the Committee to support the decision making process.

The Policy will be a living document, so where legislation changes occur or decisions that impact on the policy are made by the Licensing and Public Safety Committee over the life of the policy, the document will be updated to reflect this. However, the philosophy would be that the policy, which has been consulted upon, would be the basis for all decisions and in normal circumstances the policy would only be subject to revision at the regular, timetabled review dates, where the changes would be subject to consultation.

The draft policy was out for consultation for a period of 12 weeks to the end of December 2016; each current consent holder was written to and provided a link to the council’s website, where the document was published.

The Council received one brief consultation response from a Consent Holder providing support for the introduction of a policy and suggested that the Council limit the number of Consents. However, other authorities operating a licensing scheme rather than a consent scheme have greater scope to limit numbers as the licensing provisions lend themselves to licensing pitches rather than providing a consent to operate within the wider borough limited only by prohibition on trading on certain streets and in specified areas.

There are currently 23 issued Consents, 17 of which are to applicants from within the Chorley Borough area, 6 from outside. Although Street Trading is very seasonal therefore the council often receives more applications in spring and requests to surrender and have the remaining months refunded as winter approaches, therefore putting a limit on this number was not recommended. It was suggested that this be monitored and brought back to committee if there were any significant issues.

The Street Trading Policy introduced a requirement for the applicant to complete a basic Disclosure and Barring Services (DBS) check, this may be by electronic update service. The cost of the DBS would be borne by the applicant. It was anticipated that this may naturally limit numbers.

The fees for Street Trading Consents have not been reviewed for a number of years. Chorley Council Finance Department have been asked to review the current fees in line with the requirement to ensure they reflect the cost of administering the consent and any additional enforcement or inspection costs associated with the consent.

Following discussion and careful consideration its was proposed by Councillor Adrian Lowe, seconded by Councillor John Walker and subsequently RESOLVED unanimously;

1.    to note the consultation response received on the proposed Draft Street Trading Policy

2.    that the Street Trading Policy be implemented with immediate effect.

3.    that a formal review and consultation of the Street Trading Policy be timetabled for 3 years.

4.    that delegated power be granted to the Director of Early Intervention and Support in consultation with the Chair and Vice-Chair to make amendments to the policy from time to time arising from changes to legislation or case law.

5.    the delegated power be granted to the Director of Early Intervention and Support in consultation with the Chair and Vice-Chair to review the fees for Street Trading Consents and apply the revised fees.