21 Oct 2013 – Troubles in Leicester
Pete emailed pedlars.info 21 Oct 2013:
Leicester says you must have a Street Trading Consent to pedal inside the central shopping area and that costs over a grand for three months.
Is that legal?
Can they do that and could someone be prosecuted for pedaling with a Pedlar’ Certificate BUT without Leicester’s own street trading consent?
Many thanks.
Useful website.
pedlars.info replied 21 Oct 2013:
Peter
Thanks for contacting pedlars.info with your question.
Acting as a pedlar under the Pedlars Act throughout the UK ran into difficulties in 1999 when the City of Westminster introduced a private bill and misled parliament saying that genuine pedlars would not be affected by the bill. Pedlars accepted that but by 2007 it was quite clear that genuine pedlars were being affected and they petitioned against Bournemouth & Manchester and more recently Reading Leeds Canterbury & Nottingham bills. The interim period 1999-2007 saw several other jurisdictions bring forward bills with exact replica text with the same negative effect on genuine pedlars. These were Newcastle & London 2000, Medway 2004, Leicester, Liverpool & Maidstone 2006.
These private Acts introduced an amendment to the pedlars exemption from street trading regulation under the LGMPA/LLAA – that acting as a pedlar is not street trading… if the trading is carried out only by means of visits from house to house.
This article discusses the interpretation issue.
There are 2 different interpretations of what that amendment means.
For pedlars it means ambulant trading by pedestrian means and not establishing a static pitch or stall equivalent to the apparatus of licensed traders.
For council enforcement officers it means pedlars can only trade at doors of houses – door-to-door sellers and many Select Committees have seen evidence that councils wrongly seek monopoly powers to control pedlars but whose trading activity falls outside the remit of local authorities street trading regulation.
Neither parliament nor government has given clarification on correct interpretation.
So in Leicester you are confronted with this anomaly.
Here is link to the legislation.
Once Leicester got its private Act it then without reference to pedlars or government and through the mechanism of a simple council resolution, extended the designation (prohibited, consent or licenced) of streets to the whole of Leicester so that pedlars are now prohibited from all streets within Leicester. They of course do not issue licences for pedlars in Leicester.
To defend yourself will require you to become expert in the law and/or have sufficient funds to Appeal any case through to Judicial Review.
This being unrealistic is a reality that the current government/BIS consultation/policy does not address as an inevitable consequence of badly drafted law.
This is because BIS has failed to differentiate the principles of street trading and pedlary and seek only to repeal the Pedlars Act to place pedlars under enforced street trading regulation with threat of criminal sanction that a pedlar can be penalised by CRB registration for trading in a street without a licence.
You can read the BIS proposals at this link.
Pedlars.info is seeking to stop such mischievous legislation and to ensure that BIS return to the original consultation policy to amend the Pedlars Act. Pedlars Third Option proposals are at this link.
I trust we can send you regular pedlar updates.
Robert
admin
23 Oct reply:
Well that was a £10 donation well spent.
Many thanks for that comprehensive reply Robert you have saved me considerable expense and potentially futile effort.
I am much obliged to you and wish you every success in your work.
Do add me to your mailing list and be assured of my continuing support.
Warmest best regards.
Pete