Barnet Council's Licensing and General Purposes Committee met to discuss the council's performance in managing licenses and to approve a new street trading policy. Councillors voted to approve the new street trading policy.

Street Trading Policy

Councillors discussed a report on the proposed new Street Trading Policy for Barnet. This policy had previously been the subject of a public consultation which received 151 responses. The council received 132 responses to the consultation on its new Street Trading Policy. The policy sets out where street trading can take place in Barnet, what kinds of things can be sold by street traders, and what the council's process is for managing street trading. The new policy will mean that there are now three categories of street trading consent:

• Consent Streets
• Licensed Streets
• Market Streets

Consent streets are those where anyone can trade at any time without needing to apply to the council for a license, although they will still need to comply with the other aspects of the new policy. On Licensed Streets, traders will be able to apply for a license from the council to trade. The new policy sets out how many licenses the council will make available in each location. Market Streets will be those where the council will grant a license to another organisation, like a business improvement district, to manage street trading in a particular location.

The new policy sets out what the council considers 'trading' for the purposes of the policy:

'Trading’ means any activity which is carried on in a street (as defined within this Policy) or open space by a person for gain or reward or in connection with any business carried on elsewhere, whether by that person or some other person'

The policy goes on to list some specific things that count as trading, and some things that the council considers are not trading:

Examples that would normally be considered trading:

• Selling or offering for sale any food or drink or other article
• Advertising
• Performing or offering to perform any service
• Making collections of money (for example for charitable purposes)
• Distributing printed or other materials

Examples that would not normally be considered trading:

• Setting down and picking up of passengers by a licensed taxi or private hire vehicle
• The selling of articles in the street in connection with a house-to-house collection under the authority of a licence granted under Section 87 of the Act of 1982

The new policy allows the council to create byelaws that will apply specifically to street trading in particular areas. These byelaws could be used, for example, to set out specific rules about trading in a particular location, or at a particular time. After a brief discussion, Councillors voted to approve the new policy. You can read the new policy here: Appendix 1 - Draft street trading Policy 2024 - 2029 post consultation

Licensing Service Performance

Councillors discussed the council's performance in managing its licensing functions. Overall, the council has performed well on licensing over the last year. In almost every area, the council is processing applications faster than its statutory deadlines. However, the report did highlight that the council is failing to meet its target of responding to licensing applications for major new developments within 15 days. The report notes that this is due to the increasing complexity of these major applications:

The complexity of major applications has continued to increase as the demands on the service have grown. Applications are often not determined at Sub-Committee because further information is requested to allow Members to make an informed decision. This leads to delays and therefore impacts on the target. You can read the full performance report here: Licensing Annual Performance Committee Report - for clearance