Agenda item

To adopt the revised Street Trading Licensing Policy attached at Appendix A to the report. 

That the revised Street Trading Licensing Policy, as attached at Appendix A to the report, be ADOPTED. 

63.1          The report of the Licensing Team Leader, circulated at Pages No. 222-253, asked the Committee to adopt the revised Street Trading Licensing Policy attached at Appendix A to the report.

63.2          The Lead Member for Clean and Green Environment advised that Tewkesbury Borough Council’s Street Trading Policy was last reviewed four years ago in 2019.  A revised draft policy was approved for consultation by the Licensing Committee in June 2023 and, following a 12 week period between July and September 2023, the final draft was approved by the Licensing Committee in November for presentation to the Executive Committee.  Four main changes were proposed, the first being removal of the requirement for a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check on the basis that Gloucestershire Police was a statutory consultee and undertook PNC checks on all applications.  Removing the DBS requirement saved the applicant the cost of the check and Council resource in terms of processing the applications.  This change would bring Tewkesbury Borough Council in line with Cheltenham Borough, Cotswold District, Gloucester City and the Forest of Dean District Councils.  The policy also proposed specified consents and durations of applications and standard applications for markets, which included a requirement for the applicant to provide valid insurance documents for each event, as well as inclusive mobility requirements which was an extremely important addition to ensure the authority remained inclusive and sensitive to all members of the community.  There were currently 20 active consents and all of the license holders would be informed of the changes which, if approved, would come into effect on 1 January 2024.

63.3           A Member questioned how many consultation responses had been received and again indicated that she did not recall having seen it.  The Licensing Team Leader advised that four consultation responses had been received including one from Tewkesbury Town Council.  Other Members confirmed they had also not received the consultation email and it was stated that, if Councillors did not respond to consultations in relation to their Ward, there should be a mechanism to remind them.  A Member questioned whether it was possible to amend the prohibited streets list and was advised this was subject to a designation process which would need to be undertaken separately outside of the meeting.  A Member queried whether Ward Members could input into the prohibited streets list when that was considered and the Licensing Team Leader advised that the current list was quite old and amending it would require a further consultation exercise so it could be a lengthy process to obtain a new list; however, that was a piece of work which she intended to do in the future.  A Member asked if there was a more specific timeframe for that and was advised that realistically it was likely to be towards the end of 2024.  In response to a query regarding there only being one consent for a market, as stated at Page No. 223, Paragraph 1.5 of the report, the Licensing Team Leader advised that this was an annual consent for Tewkesbury market; one-off and time-limited consents were also issued in addition to that.

63.4           It was proposed, seconded and