Agenda item

(Mr. J. Greer, Director of Economic Development, attended in connection with this item.)

 

            The Committee considered the following report:

 

“1.0      Purpose of Report or Summary of main Issues

 

1.1       Following the Bank Buildings fire in August a number of businesses in the immediate area were not able to trade due to the very dangerous condition in which the building was left. City Picnic, a burger restaurant, situated in Unit 5 McAuley House, 2-6 Castle Street has been one of those affected businesses, they still remain displaced from their premises and will remain so for a number of months to come.

 

1.2       As part of an assistance package from the Council City Picnic have been trading from a trailer as part of the Christmas Continental Market on Donegall Place. This was facilitated under the Council’s Market Rights.

 

1.3       As the Market has now stopped trading, the only other mechanism that is available to permit lawful trading is through the granting of Temporary Street Trading Licences.

 

2.0       Recommendations

 

2.1       Based on the information presented and considering any representations received, the Committee is requested to consider the application and decide whether it is minded:

 

1.      To grant and approve the Licence, or;

2.      To grant and approve the Licence with additional conditions, or

3.      To refuse the Licence application.

 

2.2       Members may attach any reasonable Conditions when granting a Street Trading Licence.

 

2.3       If Members are minded to grant the Temporary Licence, you are then requested to delegate to the Director of Planning and Building Control authority to grant any further Temporary Licences that may be required.

 

2.4       If the licence is refused, the applicant may appeal the Council’s decision within 21 days of notification of that decision to the Magistrates’ Court.

 

3.0       Main report

 

            Key Issues

 

3.1       Committee is reminded of a decision of the Council’s Health and Environmental Services Committee on 10th December 2003, in which they refused to designate Donegall Place and Royal Avenue as places in respect of which it might grant stationary Street Trading Licences.

 

3.2       That decision was taken after a series of Special meetings of the Health and Environmental Services Committee from September 2003 to December 2003, when the Committee heard from applicants, statutory consultees, business representatives and professional independent experts. One of the key issues discussed was around the sale of hot food.

 

3.3       Committee had considered that cooking odours are an unavoidable consequence of hot food stalls/vans. Odour dispersal will be dependent on climatic conditions and experience showed that cooking smells cause annoyance and give rise to complaints from people living or working in the vicinity. There is also a potential for complaints to arise due to litter associated with a hot food stall/van.

 

3.4       It has been the Council’s policy position since then that no street trading takes place on Donegall Place and Royal Avenue (more specifically the portion from the junction with North Street to Donegall Place).

 

3.5       Most recently, the Licensing Committee, at its meeting of 15th May 2013, upheld the policy decision and refused a Temporary Street Trading Licence for Royal Avenue outside Castle Court that was for the free distribution of popcorn by way of a promotion.

 

            Legislative background for Temporary Street Trading

 

3.6       The Street Trading Act (NI) 2001 Section 14 permits the Council to issue a Temporary Street Trading Licence where a full-term Licence may not be appropriate, for example, for special events such as festivals, fairs, etc. The Act permits temporary trading to take place in an undesignated street or in goods or services which are normally prohibited in that street.

 

3.7       There is a limitation on the duration of a Temporary Licence, it cannot be granted for a period exceeding 7 days and no more than 5 Temporary Licences may be issued to any one applicant in a year.  

 

3.8       There is however, no prohibition on a new applicant applying for a Temporary Licence to allow trade to continue after the 5 Temporary Licences have expired.

 

3.9       The restrictions on the frequency and duration of Temporary Licences represent a balance between the number of days when special events/occasions may occur and the need to prevent an unreasonable level of trading in an area, which may not have been designated. 

 

3.10      Members may be aware that the Council, through the Health and Environmental Services Committee, had previously agreed a Policy in 2001 with respect to the granting of Temporary Licences.

 

3.11      Applications to permit Temporary Street Trading are normally only permitted at special events such as Christmas Lights Switch-on, New Year’s Eve, Halloween Events, Festival & Civic Events, Community Organised Events and Cultural Parades/Events.

 

3.12      The Committee is however entitled to depart from its usual policy where there are exceptional circumstances, which would warrant it to do so.

 

3.13      It is also important that the holder of a Temporary Licence should not have an unfair advantage over the holder of a full-term licence who may only trade in designated streets.

 

            Extenuating Circumstances

 

3.14      In considering this application, Members may wish to have regard to the exceptional circumstances relating to the Primark fire that have led to extreme financial and emotional hardship for the owners of City Picnic (and others) who were unable to operate at all for a number of weeks and had to lay off staff as a result.

 

3.15      It is also the case that as soon as the remedial works to Bank Buildings are complete City Picnic intend to return to their existing premises and resume trading. The latest indications from Primark are that Castle Street should be accessible to the public by Easter and we would expect City Picnic to be open and trading again by the end of April at the latest.

 

            Application

 

3.16      Mr Gavin Gregg of City Picnic has applied to sell hot and cold food and non-alcoholic beverages from a catering trailer. His proposed hours of operation are as follows:

 

·        Monday to Sunday - 24 hours a day.

 

            Consultation

 

3.17      DfI Roads, PSNI, Belfast One, Belfast City Centre Management have been asked for their views on the proposal. At the time of writing this report responses had only been received from DfI Roads, PSNI and Eason.

 

3.18      DfI Roads and the PSNI have no objections to the proposals. (Attached as Appendix 1)

 

3.19      Eason are located in 40-46 Donegall Place and have the City Picnic hot food van outside their premises. They have indicated that they are not in support of the application and have raised a number of points attached as Appendix 2. These include:

 

·        Eason’s believed the street would have been cleared of all pre-Christmas trading.

 

·        They have a coffee shop in their store that serves hot food and its owner, who is also an independent trader, already has difficultly trading with M&S and Next also having coffee shops.

 

·        It seems strange that this Van is not located in a place where there are not as many food outlets.

 

            Fee

 

3.20      The Council’s Economic Development Division of the Place and Economy Department have agreed that they will pay the Licence fees required for the duration of the applicant’s stay at this location given the exceptional circumstances the applicant finds himself in. Depending on the success of the continued trading and the ongoing works at the Primark Building, the applicant may require up to 10 Temporary Street Trading Licences at a cost of £5,000.Members are asked to consider waiving the fee on this occasion, as the payment is an internal Council transaction.

 

            Delegated Authority

 

3.21      Members are reminded that the normal process for dealing with a Temporary Street Trading Licence application, which is not the subject of objections is that the Director of Planning and Building Control will grant the Licence as provided for in the Council’s Scheme of delegation. This application is before Committee as it is contrary to the Committee’s current policy position in that it would permit trading in areas where street trading is not usually permitted and also involves the sale of hot food in the city centre.

 

3.22      If Committee agree to grant the Licence for 7 days, it is requested that delegated authority be granted to the Director of Planning and Building Control to impose Conditions and grant any subsequent applications made by the applicant.

 

3.23      Financial and Resource Implications

 

            If the Committee is of the mind to grant the applicant a Street Trading Licence, the fee is as follows:

 

·        Application Fee of £180, and

·        A Licence fee, for Monday to Sunday £320.

 

            The fees will be met from the existing budget of the Council’s Economic Development Division.

 

3.24      Equality or Good Relations Implications/Rural Needs Assessment

 

            There are no issues associated with this report.”

 

            The Building Control Manger informed the Members that, to enable the owners of City Picnic to continue trading on the Donegall Place site, the Committee was being asked to consider granting Temporary Street Trading Licenses until such time as the owners of City Picnic were able to return to their premises.

 

            He advised the Committee that the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the Department for Infrastructure had no objections to the application.  He added that a local trader had submitted an objection, but had withdrawn it prior to the meeting of the Licensing Committee commencing.

 

            The Building Control Manager indicated to the Members that correspondence had been received from three other local traders who had concerns regarding the application. He also advised that Belfast City Centre Management had confirmed that businesses, in the main, welcomed the opportunity for City Picnic to trade but had raised the issue about the possibility of increased littering.

 

            He added that if the Committee was minded to grant the Temporary Street Trading Licence, then consideration be given to delegating authority to the Director of Planning and Building Control to approve subsequent applications for the site on Donegall Place.

 

            He informed the Committee that Mr. Gavin Gregg and Mr Arthur McAnerney were present, should the Committee require additional information.

 

            The Director of Economic Development informed the Members that the circumstances were exceptional and the application was a temporary measure to provide assistance to the applicants who had been displaced because of the cordon that surrounded Bank Buildings.  He informed Members that efforts to find a unit for the applicants to occupy on a temporary basis had been fruitless, as landlords and letting agents were unwilling to provide short-term leases to food and beverage businesses.  He added that the site on Donegall Place appeared to be the only option available to the applicants to continue trading until they were able to return to their premises on Castle Street.

 

            The Committee agreed that it would be beneficial to hear from Mr. Gregg and Mr. McAnerney and they were welcomed to the meeting.

 

            The Chairperson welcomed Mr. McAnerney and Mr. Gregg to the meeting and expressed her sympathy to them for the exceptional circumstances that they had found themselves in and acknowledged the financial and emotional stress endured since August 2018 as a result of the fire at Bank Buildings.

 

            Mr. McAnerney informed Committee that if it was minded to grant the Temporary Street Trading Licence, then it would offer him the opportunity to retain some of his staff members.  He added that it would also allow him to continue promoting his brand and have a presence within the city centre which would also allow him to retain the business’ habitual customers. 

 

            In response to a question from a Member with regard to the hours of operation on the application for 24 hour trading, Mr. McAnerney informed Members that he did not require 24 hour trading and that he was seeking to trade from Tuesday to Saturday 8am to 5pm, that he would not operate on a Sunday or a Monday and that he intended to open on Friday and Saturday evenings to 2am.

 

            Following a further question from a Member regarding litter, Mr. McAnerney said that the Council had an arrangement in place with regard to waste collection at the site and that it was an ongoing arrangement.  He also gave the Members assurances that the area adjacent to the site would be maintained and that waste would not be left in bags in the surrounding area.

 

            After further discussion, it was

 

Moved by Councillor Hussey,

Seconded by Councillor Boyle,

 

      That the Committee agrees to approve the application for a temporary street trading licence for seven days, for the daytime hours requested by the applicant, with no evening trading permitted.  That authority is delegated to the Director of Planning and Building Control to renew the licence upon application on not more than four further occasions, and that the Licensee must also undertake to maintain the area adjacent to the premises with regard to litter.

 

Amendment

 

Moved by Councillor Collins,

Seconded by Councillor Clarke,

 

      That the Committee agrees to approve the application for a temporary street trading licence for seven days, for the daytime hours requested by the applicant, and to include Friday and Saturday evenings to 2am.  That authority is delegated to the Director of Planning and Building Control to renew the licence upon application on not more than four further occasions, and that the Licensee must undertake to maintain the area adjacent to the premises with regard to litter.

 

            On a vote by show of hands, ten Members voted for the amendment and four against and it was declared carried.

 

            The Committee also agreed to the waiving of the applicable fee, as the Council’s Economic Development Division of the Place and Economy Department had agreed that it would pay the licence fee and any subsequent renewal fees.

 

            It was further agreed that the City Solicitor would provide a legal opinion for consideration at the February meeting of the Licensing Committee regarding protocol for future applications for Temporary Street Trading Licences in Donegall Place.