Agenda item

Report of the Director of Public Protection and Licensing

4.1      Robin Grey, Senior Licensing Officer (Street Trading), introduced the report.  He stated that street trading activities in Westminster are regulated under the City of Westminster Act 1999.  The Council was able to prescribe standard conditions that are applicable to all street trading licences.  The current standard conditions had applied since 15 March 1999.  Mr Grey advised that the Council had adopted its current street trading policy in 2013.  Certain provisions of the policy could not be applied to street trading activities unless they were incorporated into the conditions of the licence.  Therefore a proposed set of revised standard conditions had been drafted and were included with the report.  In drafting the revised conditions, consultation had taken place with Environmental Health, Trading Standards, the City Inspectors and the Fire Service.  The Committee were being asked to give their approval for notice to be given to all holders of street trading licences of the proposed amended standard conditions and of the right for representations to be made in accordance with the statutory procedure set out in the City of Westminster Act 1999.    

4.2      Mr Grey explained that the licensing conditions are enforced by the City Inspectors and that a penalty point scheme had been in place since August 1996 to deal with breaches of street trading and temporary licence conditions.  Each licence condition under the current scheme had a prescribed number of points that would be allocated to a licence holder by the City Inspector if they breach that condition.  Where a licence holder received 15 penalty points in a 6 month period, they would be given a written warning.  If the licence holder received 25 points in a 6 month period, they would be required to attend a hearing before a Licensing Sub-Committee or Licensing Officer Panel.  The current scheme allowed a trader to breach a ‘one point’ condition 15 times before a written warning is given.  By increasing the minimum penalty points from one to three, non-compliance could be dealt with faster whilst still taking a staged approach to enforcement and giving sufficient opportunity for a trader to modify their operation and comply with their conditions.  Mr Grey referred to the fact that the Committee were being asked to give their approval for consultation to be undertaken with relevant stakeholders on the amended schedule to the street trading penalty point scheme in order to reflect the proposed changes to the standard conditions.      

4.3      Members of the Committee considered that whilst it was very important to maintain health and safety standards such as keeping the receptacle in good condition and updating the food safety condition which were mentioned by Councillor Mitchell, it was also necessary to give the small businesses at the markets some flexibility and support.  The emphasis should not be on penalising the traders.  They had in many cases been operating successfully in the markets for many years and worked hard, often in difficult circumstances.  Councillor Harvey, the Chairman and Councillor Gassanly did not consider that an onus should be placed on the City Inspectors to enforce if the distance above ground level of any part of any roof, awning, or supports of the stall or goods suspended from any of these was not at least 2.6 metres.  As stated by the Chairman, the Committee were keen that there was a comprehensive consultation process and that the comments of the traders were taken fully into account.  The language used in the consultation should be easy to understand.  Councillor Harvey recommended that there was a simplified guide to street trading for new traders.  Councillor Gassanly also made the point that it was important not to discourage new traders coming to the markets in Westminster which would lead to them deciding to set up businesses elsewhere.  There needed to continue to be diversity in business and trade in the borough. Councillor Hyams queried whether the insurance cover having a minimum liability of £2m was set at an appropriate level.

4.4      Mr Grey, in response to the comments of the Sub-Committee, advised that many of the conditions did arise from the 2013 street trading policy which had been approved by the Council and had been subject to extensive consultation.  Officers were required to implement that policy such as that ‘no trading shall take place unless the trader or a registered assistant is present on the stall’.  Mr Grey informed Members that the 2.6 metres restriction on the height of stalls had been removed except for Bayswater Road where the market wanted this consistency from its operators.  Officers worked with new traders regarding the receptacles and whilst each market tended to have a theme there was variety in the offer from the traders.  In respect of the insurance cover, there were street trading associations who offered this to traders at a cost of approximately £50 a year.  He added that it would be possible to provide a simplified guide for market traders.  It was his aim to update the Committee at the next meeting scheduled for 30 November. 

4.5       RESOLVED: (i) That the Committee give their approval for consultation to be given to all holders of street trading licences of the proposed standard conditions and of the right for representations to be made in accordance with the statutory procedure set out in the City of Westminster Act 1999; and

            (ii) That the Committee give their approval for consultation to be undertaken with relevant stakeholders on the amended schedule to the street trading penalty point scheme to reflect the proposed changes to the standard conditions.