Agenda and draft minutes

Members are asked to declare any disclosable pecuniary or affected interests in respect of any matter to be considered at this meeting.

Any Member with a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest in a matter should withdraw from the meeting when the matter is under consideration and should notify the Democratic Services Officer in attendance that they are withdrawing as they have such an interest. If the Disclosable Pecuniary Interest is not entered on the register of Members interests the Monitoring Officer must be notified of the interest within 28 days.

Any Member with an affected Interest in a matter must disclose the interest to the meeting.  There is no requirement to withdraw from the meeting when the interest is only an affected interest, but the Monitoring Officer should be notified of the interest, if not previously notified of it, within 28 days of the meeting.

There were no Declarations of Interest.

The procedure for hearing at Licensing Panels was noted and understood by all

parties.

The Panel came to the decision to grant a new 6-month Street Trading Consent, which was to run from the date when the currently closed layby pitch, from which the business traded from, was re-opened and available to use following the ending of current highway and utility works that were taking place there.

The Panel was informed at the Hearing that the applicant had submitted their application for renewal of the 6-month Street Trading Consent on the 3November 2022, prior to the expiry of the then existing Consent and that the applicant had paid the appropriate 6-month renewal fee. The Panel was informed, however, that owing to on-going highway and utility works currently taking place in connection with the impending adjacent housing development works on the former Coopers Hill Community Facility site, the layby within the business pitch was situated, and has been trading at since 2017, had been fenced off and would remain closed until those works were completed, which was currently estimated to be in February or March 2023.  

In reaching its decision on the Street Trading Consent renewal application, the Panel noted that although The Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982 afforded the Council ultimate discretion to determine such Street Trading Consent applications, that discretion is subject to the public law principles and duty of legality, procedural fairness, and rationality.

In reaching its decision the Panel had regard to the Council’s “Policy For Determination Of Street Trading Consents”, as set out in the published Agenda pack. That Policy prescribed six factors that the Council was to have particular regard to in determining such applications, namely;

1. The likely impact on the existing highway users either as a result of the use of the road by the trader or by the trader’s customers.
2. The location relative to any residents or businesses likely to be affected by the use of the site.
3. The nature of the trade.
4. The trading times.
5. Appearance.
6. Impact upon the street scene.  

The Policy though prescribes that the above factors were not at the exclusion of others that the Panel, at its discretion, may wish to take in to account. The Panel in the case noted that they would include any likely adverse impact on constructors, their agents and prospective house purchasers visiting the adjacent housing development site and any adverse impact on impending future visitors and residents of that housing development site. The Panel’s decision was based on its consideration of all the evidence put before it.

The Panel carefully considered all the information presented, both written and oral, from:

• the Licensing Officer who outlined the issues;
• the Applicant,
• the Objector from the relevant Highways Authority 

Including noting the written representations received both from statutory consultees, Thames Valley Police and Environmental Health as well as one objection received after the close of consultation from the developer of the adjacent housing development site. The Panel also noted 23 emails from customers, again received after close of consultation, in support of the application for continued  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.