Several of our London members have made us aware of a consultation on the continuance of Pavement Licence which raises a number of concerns for them.
A link to the consultation is provided below and unfortunately the consultation closes on Friday so urgent action is required.
When the Pavement Licence arrangements were introduced we expressed concern to government about a number of issues but sadly this concern was not taken into account. The only concession we secured was that if a Pavement Licence Application impacted significantly on the operation of existing street trading or market arrangements then there would be a ground for refusing the application.
Our London members are concerned primarily about the following:
- The loss in income to existing street trading activities
- The unfairness of Pavement Licences taking up such larger areas of space for a lower licence fee.
- The inability to charge a daily fee.
- The need for consultation on the implementation of proposals before a final decision is made.
When we last raised this issue there appeared to be little interest outside of London but this might be because street trading, outside of London, is handled by the licensing section rather than the markets team. If this is so can you please direct this email to your licensing colleagues as a matter of urgency.
The link to the consultation is as follows: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=EGg0v32c3kOociSi7zmVqGAi-k_JmURMkx_BAcg_hitUMFQ2Uk03NFZWOUtMQTZLTUpRVEtGM1ZIUy4u