IN PARLIAMENT
HOUSE OF COMMONS
SESSION 2007–08
Against – on merits – Praying to be heard by Counsel, &c.
To the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled.
THE HUMBLE PETITION of GORDON ELIOTT
SHEWETH as follows:-
1 A Bill (hereinafter referred to as “the Bill”) has been introduced and is now pending in your honourable House intituled “A Bill to confer powers on Bournemouth Borough Council for the better control of street trading in the borough of Bournemouth”.
2 The Bill is promoted by Bournemouth Borough Council. The Preamble to the Bill recites that, "(1) The borough of Bournemouth (hereinafter called "the borough") is a district under the management and local government of Bournemouth Borough Council (hereinafter called "the council"): (2) Certain powers relating to street trading in the borough are exercisable by the council under the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill Act 1982 (c. 30) and for their better enforcement it is expedient to amend that Act in its application to Bournemouth and supplement those powers".
3 The Purposes of the Bill as set out are:
1 To extend the scope of Schedule 4 to the 1982 Act so that it enables the Council to regulate the provisions of services on the street as well as the sale of articles;
2 To alter the exemption enjoyed by the holders of a pedlar's certificate from the street trading regime contained in the 1982 Act;
3 To empower council officers or police constables to seize articles, receptacles or equipment, in cases where they believe a street trading offence has been committed;
4 To allow the court to order the forfeiture of any article, receptacle or equipment which is shown to the satisfaction of the court to relate to the offence;
5 To enable council officers to serve fixed penalty notices in cases where they have reason to believe that street trading offences have been committed.
4 Your Petitioner petitions against the Bill and the Preamble now proposed.
5 Your Petitioner is Gordon Eliott a self employed inventor who lives in Sussex and being above the age of seventeen has a right to apply for a pedlars certificate to trade anywhere in the United Kingdom. He attended the Select Committee Hearing in the House of Lords as witness for the Petitioner. He himself wishes to apply for a pedlar’s certificate.
6 Your Petitioner and his rights, interests and property are injuriously affected by the Bill, to which your Petitioner objects for reasons amongst others, hereinafter appearing.
7 Your Petitioner is an ordinary citizen who is familiar with the simple concept and definition of a pedlar as a street trader who travels beyond a particular district as an itinerant, regulated only by his good faith to act according to Statute. In the past he has considered the concept of a Licensed Street Trader with a fixed pitch in a particular district but being a traveller the concept is too restrictive and unworkable. He travels and builds networks of interest in his ideas and sees the Pedlars Certificate as a formal instrument enabling him access to the wider public without interference from or with local authority. He knows that a pedlars authority is the Magistracy which extends throughout the nation and, providing he abides by the rules and regulations of the Pedlars Acts he may expect endorsement and support from local officers.
8 Your Petitioner has read the Bill and Evidence to Committees and understands that the Bill seeks better control of street trading because rogue traders claim to be pedlars, and pedlars are currently exempt by statute from Local Authority Street Trading Regulation. Council claims therefore that pedlars avoid regulation but this is nonsense because by their own admission in Evidence it is rogue traders and not pedlars that cause problems. Because of this misleading notion Council now promotes a Bill to make pedlars only door to door salesmen in places where Council has control, and without any reference to rogue traders who will continue to do what rogue traders have always done. A door to door salesman does not need to be a pedlar and carry a pedlar’s certificate – nor is there any regulation for door to door selling, though it is well known that in some districts door to door selling is prohibited. A pedlar seems to be caught in an unjust blanket policy which has not been thought through in regard to genuine pedlars wanting to continue abiding by the law. The Bill contains no provisions to assist a pedlar in recognising to which houses they may go, nor how a pedlar can even get from house to house without being perceived a criminal in controlled streets. If this sort of interference with national Statute is allowed to spread throughout the land then the concept of a pedlar will be redundant because it will be an offence to be a pedlar in town centres. Your Petitioner can see this to be the real purpose of the Bill and considers clause 5 to be an offence against pedlars, clause 6 an intimidation of pedlars and clause 9 lacking justice for pedlars.
9 Your Petitioner is a citizen and notes that there are some forty eight million citizens above the age of seventeen who have the right to apply for a pedlar’s certificate and although to his knowledge very few choose to become pedlars, all are affected by the Bill because fundamental loss of rights is being hidden within the purposes.
10 The Preamble to the Bill, in so far as it relates to the matters aforesaid, is incapable of good administration for the protection of genuine pedlars.
YOUR PETITIONER therefore humbly prays your Honourable House that the Bill may not be allowed to pass into law as it now stands and that he may be heard by his Counsel, Agents and witnesses in support of the allegations of this Petition against the Preamble and against such of the clauses and provisions of the Bill as effect the property, rights and interests of your Petitioner and in support of such other clauses and provisions as may be necessary or expedient for their protection, or that such other relief may be given to your Petitioner in the premises as your Honourable House shall deem meet.
AND your Petitioner will ever Pray, &c.
Signed:………………………………………….
The Petitioner