Street trading licence

[Mr2Mike]

I work in a business park, and everyday we have a sandwich van call around the various units. The van, and several more like it are owned by a business in a nearby town who also have a high street shop. The van drivers are employed by the shop, which has been in business for about 20 years.

Our van is piloted by a very friendly woman who is normally very chatty but today I found her very upset and in floods of tears. When she arrived, two council employees pulled in behind her and proceeded to give a grilling about her lack of a traders licence, telling her that she could be prosecuted. They admitted they had been following her and observing all the sales she had made around the local business areas.

Sandwich lady explained that she was not self employed, and gave them her employers details, but council thugs maintained that she requires a licence since she is selling the sandwiches. As her patch covers more than one council area they have told her that she will need to apply for a licence in each area. They also said they would continue to observe her and that she will be prosecuted if she continues selling.

They were apparently surprised that there were other vans and that she was employed via a local business, suggesting they hadn't done any homework on this.

Apart from their bullying and unprofessional tactics (two males threatening a women with prosecution in front of customers) are they correct that she needs her own traders licence rather than her employers requiring one, and would she need multiple traders licences to cover all the council areas she covers?

I wish I'd been there to be honest, it sounds like a whole bunch of people just stood and watched her being reduced to floods of tears without questioning these aholes.

[Mr2Mike]

marshalla said:

Which Local Authorities are involved ? Rules and licensing arrangements differ from council to council.

ETA: Relevant legilsation : http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1982/30/schedu...

Licences, when required, are issued to individuals, not businesses.

Torquay, South Hams and Teignbridge. Thanks for the link, I'll forward that to her. Should her employees not have made her aware of this requirement?

[Mr2Mike]

marshalla said:

Her employers ought to be aware, but probably aren't.

Given it's a business park - are the roads adopted or still owned by the developers/landlords ? (If the latter, there may be no need for a licence as such).

Our particular business park is privately owned land, but I don't know about the others she visits.

[Mr2Mike]

Red Devil said:

Seems unlikely to be South Hams or Teignbridge although it's not conclusive.
http://www.southhams.gov.uk/article/1734/Street-Tr...
http://www.teignbridge.gov.uk/article/12933/Freque...

My money is on Torbay (which covers Torquay)
http://www.torbay.gov.uk/index/yourbusiness/licens...

There is no reason for Local Authority employees to behave in a less than professional manner. Grilling somebody in front of MoPs is inexcusable.

If it IS Torbay she should get her employer to make a formal written complaint about their conduct to the Mayor and the Executive Director.
http://www.torbay.gov.uk/index/yourcouncil/elected...
http://www.torbay.gov.uk/structure

A look at the Street Trading Schedule suggests to me (again if it IS Torbay) that the council apparatchiks are wrong.

Conditions
3. The Consent does not relieve the holder, or any employee, of any obligation...

To me that reads as the holder should be the sandwich shop owner(s) not the van driver who is an employee thereof.

Excellent stuff, thank you for taking the time to dig this out. I actually meant to write Torbay rather than Torquay, that's who the two men were representing, but they suggested she would also need licenses for the other two areas.