Wiltshire Council extends street trading scheme to mobile and short-term traders

Wiltshire Council has given a boost to mobile traders in the county, which can now apply for street trading consent to use council land or the highway as part of a mobile round, or for short-term static use.

The council's Licensing Committee met on 1 March and approved the introduction of two new types of street trading consent.

Traders that operate mobile rounds, such as ice cream vans or fish and chip vans, and that trade on the highway or council land can currently only stay in position for more than 15 minutes before they have to move on.

However, these new mobile consents will enable them to stay in one place for much longer. One new consent will allow traders to trade from up to 10 pre-arranged locations of up to three hours per week per location; the other new consent will provide a short-term solution that will enable traders to trade from a set location for up to two days per week (up to four hours each day) for a reduced fee.

This will allow the council to easily manage these mobile traders and the locations they trade from to ensure safety standards are maintained and an area is not subject to excessive numbers of traders.

Cllr Bridget Wayman, Cabinet Member for Highways, said: "We know how important street and mobile traders in Wiltshire are, and we want to give them more opportunities to trade in a way that works for them.

"There has been an increased level of interest in street trading and weekend trading recently, so these new, short-term static consents are aimed at traders who may only wish to trade once or twice a week.

"The new licences will allow all street traders to further develop their business opportunities in a controlled, fair and standardised way that benefits the operators, residents and local businesses."

"To encourage more people to trade and take advantage of these licences, we will contact all registered food traders that we know currently operate on a mobile round basis, but any other businesses that may be interested should contact our markets team."

The council has reduced the fees for the new consent types to encourage more traders to test out trading ideas in a cost-effective way. The cost of annual mobile consent is £ 2,066 for 'in town' trading and £1,103 for 'out of town' trading.  These fees represent a 50% reduction on the annual static street trading fee, due to the reduced number of working hours available to traders. Traders applying for in town and out of town locations will be subject to the higher fee. The cost of annual short-term static consent per location is £1,500 for in town trading and £800 for out of town trading, representing a 64% reduction in the cost of an annual static street trading consent, again representing the reduced trading time. All street trading applications are subject to a 30-day consultation period.

Anyone interested in applying for a street trading consent can contact the markets team at streettrading@wiltshire.gov.uk.

The council has is also encouraging pubs, cafes, bars, restaurants, snack bars and ice-cream parlours in Wiltshire to apply for temporary pavement licences ahead of 12 April, the earliest date that outdoor hospitality venues can reopen to the public under Government plans to ease the current lockdown. The licences are free, and Businesses can read detailed FAQs and download the application form at Temporary pavement licences.