Issue - meetings

The Head of Housing and Community Services advised Members of proposed changes to the procedures for dealing with Street Trading applications.  Under the current system if no objections to an application for a pitch outside the town centre are received, the Head of Housing and Community Services can grant the consent but if the application is for the town centre, it would be subject to consultation with the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Committee, who could refer it to the full Licensing Committee for determination.  If there were any objections, there would be a hearing before the full Committee.

Members were asked to consider a change being that the decisions on all applications that receive no representation are delegated to the Head of Housing and Community Services.  It was noted that there was not a clear reason why streets outside of the town centre should be treated in a different way from the town’s.  The current system could be open to challenge.

Therefore under the proposal the new form of words within the 2010 Licensing Policy at paragraphs 6.4 and 6.12 would read:

“If no objections are received the Head of Housing and Community Services has delegated power to determine the application.

If objections are received the application will be determined by a licensing sub-committee of 3 members of Licensing Committee. A hearing will be held following the attached procedure”.

However, Members did not feel that there were good reasons to change the current policy which provides safeguards for a relatively small number of applications and decided that any differentiation by area should be dealt with by all cases borough wide with no objection being subject to consultation with the Chairman and Vice-Chairman prior to any officer decision and therefore:-

RESOLVED:  That the following changes be made to the Street Trading Policy document at paragraphs 6.4 and 6.12 respectively:-

a)  If no objections to a Street Trading application are received the 
  Head of Housing and Community Services be given delegated
  powers to grant consent, subject to consultation with the
  Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Licensing Committee who
  may ask for the application to be referred to a Sub-Committee 
  consisting of three Members of the Licensing Committee for
  decision.