Council asks MPs to back ban on pedlars in city

Nottingham Evening Post - 29 October 2008

By Charles Walker: Political Editor

MPs will be asked today to back a Bill which would ban pedlars from the streets of Nottingham.

City councillors hope to persuade them to vote for a Private Bill, which would amend legislation on street trading and give the council the power to seize goods.

The traders being targeted are pedlars who push mobile stalls around the city centre, selling small items like scarves, sun glasses, and watches.

They can often be seen in areas such as Lister Gate, Clumber Street and St Peter's Square.

The council's city centre manager, Jane Dykes, said: "We are working hard to ensure consumers are offered good quality goods and we don't want that to be undermined by illegal street traders selling shoddy and potentially illegal goods."

Pedlars are able to trade using a Pedlars' Certificate, which can easily be obtained from a police station. It authorises activities like door-to-door sales and requires holders to trade 'on the move'. But the council is concerned the system is being abused.

Miss Dykes said: "When it is very competitive on the High Street we don't want the streets filled up with cheap goods to undermine the trade of bona fide retailers."

Other street traders pay for a licence to operate from a fixed pitch, while shops pay rent.

The council says the pedlar problem has only emerged in the past three years. Over the past 12 months, it has taken six cases to court, and one trader was fined £400 a week ago.

But Neil Ehrhart, markets and fairs service manager at the city council, said: "Fines are seen more as an occupational hazard rather than a deterrent."

The council has been preparing its case for two years and the cost of changing the law to the local authority is put at £50,000.

Nottingham is joining forces with five other local authorities - Manchester, Bournemouth, Reading, Canterbury and Leeds - in seeking to win approval for the Bill.

If the measure is passed by MPs in the House of Commons, it will then go to the House of Lords for further consideration. It could receive the Royal Assent and become law by this time next year.

However, if the Bill is voted down by opponents, who are led by the MP for Christchurch, Christopher Chope, any chance to change the law could be lost.

Nottingham MPs Alan Simpson, John Heppell and  Graham Allen  all support the Bill.

Mr Allen, who represents Nottingham North, said: "I think these things should be properly regulated.

"We are trying to support councils, which are undermined by some people who just flout the rules."

The Council Office in the centre of town