Street Trading

Application Forms

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Application Process 

An application form with the declaration of convictions must be completed. The following must be submitted:

• relevant application form
• two passport type photographs of the applicant and each proposed assistant
• relevant application fee (non-refundable)

Note: An approval fee must be paid before the licence can be issued.

You must provide specific information, including details of the street you wish to trade on and the days and times you wish to trade. Once a complete application has been submitted, consultations with interested parties will be undertaken which include Environmental Health, Highways, Fire Authority, Planning Department and Police Authority.

The consultation period is 28 days.

Under certain circumstances if certain grounds for refusal exist, the council may still award a licence but for fewer days than require, or to allow trade in certain items. The council will either grant the application or serve a notice on you within a reasonable time.

The notice will be served if the council intend to refuse the application, grant it on different terms than those applied for, confine trading to a particular place in a street, vary conditions of a licence or revoke a licence. The notice will detail the grounds for their decision and state that within seven days of the notice you can request in writing the opportunity to make representations.

Renewal

Where a "renewal" is to be made a completed application form, disclosure of convictions form for each assistant and the relevant fee must be made prior to expiry of an existing licence.

Community Event Street Trading

On 9 July 2013 the Licensing Committee resolved to amend the Street Trading policy to include a simplified and less costly application process for traders wishing to participate in community events trading for a single day.

Documents must be submitted a minimum of ten working days in advance of the event to the Licensing Section. A limited consultation process will then take place, e.g. where the trader intends to sell food, the Environmental Health Department will be consulted.

Traders will be issued with a Consent Notice from the Licensing Authority confirming their permission to trade at the event. Any traders at the event that have not been granted a Consent will be treated as unauthorised Street Traders and may be subject to legal action.

Tacit Consent

Yes. This means that you will be able to act as though your application is granted if you have not heard from the local authority by the end of the target completion period.

The target time period is  28 calendar days.

Background and Eligibility Criteria

Street Trading is covered by the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982 Schedule 4 – Street Trading.

• "Street Trading" means, the sale and exposing or offering for sale any article (including a living thing) in a street
• "Consent Street” means a street in which street trading is prohibited without the consent of the district council;
• "Street" includes any road, footway, beach, or other area to which the public have access without payment and a service area as defined in section 329 of the Highways Act 1980 and also includes any part of a street.

All streets in the Vale of Glamorgan are designated as Consent Streets. If you want to trade on a consent street you must obtain a street trading licence.

You must be over 17 years of age to hold a licence.

Licences may be refused if any of the following grounds exist:

• you wish to trade for less days than any minimum required trading days
• you are unsuitable to hold a licence due to any previous convictions or for other reasons
• you have previously failed to pay fees due under another street trading licence
• there isn't enough space in the street you wish to trade in, without causing interference or inconvenience to street users

The Council may refuse an application to trade on a consent street on grounds they think fit.

Conditions 

•  Conditions
  The holder of this Consent (hereinafter referred to as “the holder”, which expression where appropriate, includes joint holders of this Consent) and any person employed by him to assist him in his trading shall produce it or a photocopy of it on demand when so required by a Police Officer or a duly authorised officer of the Vale of Glamorgan Council (hereinafter referred to as “the Council”.) 

   

  The consent shall be displayed in a prominent position.

   

  The holder shall take an active part in the running of the business of the street trading carried out under this Consent and shall not delegate the management thereof to any person.

   

  In the event of an emergency, the holder and/or his employee shall move his vehicle, stall or other mode from which he is trading if requested by a Police Officer, Officer of the Council or of any of the emergency services.

   

  The holder will remove any vehicle or stall or other mode used for immediately on the cessation of the hours stipulated on each day of trading.

   

  The holder shall not cause any obstruction of the street or nuisance or danger to persons using it and shall not permit persons to gather around him or any vehicle, stall or other mode used in connection with the trading so as to cause a nuisance, or danger to any persons lawfully using the street.

   

  The holder shall not do or suffer anything to be done in or on the street which in the opinion of the Council may be or become a danger, nuisance or annoyance to or cause damage or inconvenience to the Council or to the owners or occupiers of any adjacent or neighbouring premises or to members of the public.

   

  The holder shall at all times carry a valid policy of insurance against public liability arising out of the street trading in respect of injuries to third parties and damage to property with a minimum indemnity of £500,000.  The holder shall by request of an officer of the Council, produce satisfactory evidence of the said insurance cover.

   

  The holder shall indemnify and save harmless the Council and their agents, servants, contractors and workmen from and against all proceedings, damages, claims or expenses in respect of an injury to a third party or damage to property which may be sustained by the Council or any person or persons body or company whatever arising out of or in any way connected with his trading and the provision of facilities under this Consent.

   

  The holder shall not make any excavations or indentations of any description whatsoever in the surface of the street or places or fix any equipment of any description in the said surface.

   

  The holder shall not place on the street any furniture or equipment other than as permitted by this Consent and he must maintain the same in a clean and tidy condition and not place them so as to obstruct the entrance to or exit from any premises.

   

  If a stationary vehicle is used in connection with the street trading, any exhaust fumes there from shall be discharged vertically into the atmosphere, and oil drip trays shall be placed there under so as to protect the surface of the street.

   

  No electronic amplifying equipment shall be used.

   

  The holder of a consent for trading in hot foods shall at all times carry on the vehicle 4.5 kilo Dry Powder Fire Extinguisher.

   

  Where the holder trades from a stationary vehicle, that vehicle shall in all respects, comply with the Motor Vehicle Construction and Use Regulations.  Motor vehicles shall be capable of their own propulsion and shall not be towed into trading positions.

   

  Where the mode of trading is from a stall, the construction and size thereof shall be subject to the approval of the Director Legal & Regulatory Services.

             

  In the event of inclement weather a shelter can be used which should be no bigger than 3m x 3m.

                         

  Splash guards shall be installed to prevent any splashings or spillages from hot oil used on the barrow / cart / mobile van.

   

  The stall should be attended at all times e.g. when going for toilet breaks, lunch breaks, comfort breaks or for the use of banking facilities.

   

  All persons who position barrow / carts on site and remove at the end of trading must be suitably trained in manual handling techniques.

   

  The holder shall keep his vehicle or stall or other mode used for trading, and

  trading location and the immediately adjacent area in a clean and tidy condition during the permitted hours and also leave the same in a clean and tidy condition and unobstructed at the end of each period of trading.

   

  The holder shall provide at his own cost and expense, litter bins or similar receptacles for the deposit of litter resulting from his street trading activities and remove them and their contents at the end of each period of trading.

   

  The holder shall retain with his vehicle or stall or other mode used for trading, any water used or waste produced until the end of each period of trading on each day of such trading and then remove it or dispose of it elsewhere, and in particular shall not deposit any such waste near or into any street, drain or channel.

   

  The Consent holder shall comply with all requirements of the Director of  Legal, Public Protection and Housing in respect of the street trading.

   

  No street trading shall be undertaken in breach of food hygiene, health and safety, public health or planning legislation or any other legislation and the requirements of the Vale of Glamorgan Council shall be complied with in respect of such matters.

             

  The holder shall not assign, underlet or part with his interest or possession under this Consent or any part thereof, but he may surrender it to the Council at any time.

   

  This Consent may be revoked by the Council at any time and the Council shall not in any circumstances whatsoever be liable to pay any compensation to the holder in respect of such revocation.

   

  The Council may vary, amend or add to the conditions of this Consent at any time.

Fees

Application fees are non-refundable and the approval fee must be paid before the licence can be issued.

The fee for renewal of an existing licence is the approval fee only.

Supplementary Information 

All streets in the Vale of Glamorgan are designated as Consent Streets. If you want to trade on a consent street you must obtain a street trading licence.

A consent holder may employ other persons to assist in their trading without a further consent being issued providing their names and addresses have been given to the council.

The following are not Street Trading for the purpose of the schedule:

Pedlar

Certificates are issued by the police, not the Vale of Glamorgan Council.

The term “pedlar” means any hawker, pedlar, petty chapman, tinker, caster of metals, mender of chairs, or other person who, without any horse or other beast bearing or drawing burden, travels and trades on foot and goes from town to town or to other men’s houses, carrying to sell or exposing for sale any goods, wares, or merchandise, or procuring orders for goods, wares, or merchandise immediately to be delivered, or selling or offering for sale his skill in handicraft;

Roundsman

Roundsman means one who goes the round of his customers for orders and the delivery of goods and denotes a person who follows a set route to attend  on specific/identifiable customers for the purpose of either taking orders or for the delivery of goods. The act clearly envisages that intermediate sales may be made but that is ancillary to the round.

Trading as a news vendor

Trading which is carried on at a premises used as a petrol filling station or is carried on at a premises used as a shop or in a street adjoining premises so used and as part of the business of the shop.

Market or fair

Anything done in a market or fair, the right to hold which was acquired by virtue of a grant or acquired or established by virtue of an enactment or order.

Trunk road

Trading in a trunk road picnic area provided by the Secretary of State under section 112 of the Highways Act 1980.

Offences and Penalties

1)A person who - 

(a)engages in street trading in a prohibited street; or

(b)engages in street trading in a licence street or a consent street without being authorised to do so under this Schedule; or

(c)contravenes any of the principal terms of a street trading licence; or

(d)being authorised by a street trading consent to trade in a consent street, trades in that street—

    (i)from a stationary van, cart, barrow or other vehicle; or

    (ii)from a portable stall, without first having been granted permission to do so under paragraph 7(8)    

     above;

or

(e)contravenes a condition imposed under paragraph 7(9) above, shall be guilty of an offence.

(2)It shall be a defence for a person charged with an offence under sub-paragraph (1) above to prove that he took all reasonable precautions and exercised all due diligence to avoid commission of the offence.

(3)Any person who, in connection with an application for a street trading licence or for a street trading consent, makes a false statement which he knows to be false in any material respect, or which he does not believe to be true, shall be guilty of an offence.

(4)A person guilty of an offence under this paragraph shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale.

Complaint and Other Redress

•  Failed Application Redress

  Please contact the Licensing Team in the first instance:

   

  Tel: 01446 709105

  Email: licensing@valeofglamorgan.gov.uk

   

•  Licence Holder Redress
  Please contact the Licensing Team in the first instance:

   

  Tel: 01446 709105

  Email: licensing@valeofglamorgan.gov.uk

   

•  Consumer Complaint
  We would always advise that in the event of a complaint the first contact is made with the trader by you, preferably in the form of a letter with proof of delivery. 

   

  If that has not worked and you are located in the UK Consumer Direct will be able to give you advice.    

   

  If you have a complaint from across Europe contact the UK European Consumer Centre.

Regulations and Guidance

Regulations

Public Register