Report of the Head of Environmental Development attached.

The Sub Committee is asked to determine an application to renew a street trading consent.

The Head of Environmental Development submitted a report (previously circulated, now appended). Samantha Howell (Licensing Officer) presented the report to the Sub Committee.

Mr Karrouchi (Applicant) accompanied by Mr Hussain, attended the meeting and presented their case. Mr Bird and Mr Fletcher (Interested Parties, Oriel College) also attended and outlined their concerns and objections to the Sub Committee.

The Sub Committee resolved that its deliberations on this case should be taken in private, on the grounds that the discussions would focus on the financial and business dealings of the applicants.

Licensing Officers and Mr Hussain and Mr Karrouchi withdrew whilst the Sub Committee considered the case.

Having taken all evidence into account, both written and oral, the Sub Committee were satisfied that the evidence showed there had been a number of breaches of the conditions attached to consent no. 11/00026/STREET during the last year, specifically:

Condition 11 - not positioned in allocated space.

Condition 18 - unauthorised staff.

Condition 7   - noise nuisance.

Condition 8   - waste disposal.

The breaches of condition were also contrary to objective (c) The Avoidance of Public Nuisance and (h) No Highway obstruction of the Council's Street Trading Policy.

Whilst the Applicant appeared to have taken steps to remedy the breaches regarding unauthorised staff and waste disposal the problems of noise nuisance and the vehicle not always being positioned in its allocated space continued to result in complaints.

The Sub Committee understood the Applicant's explanation that occasionally the allocated space was occupied by unauthorised vehicles. However, the Sub Committee has no control over unauthorised parking and whilst it was no doubt frustrating to the Applicant it was not a defence to trading outside his allocated space. Any trading which took place outside that space would not be covered by the Consent and would therefore be unlawful and could be subject to enforcement action.   

The Sub Committee found that the primary causes of the Objector's complaints were noise nuisance from the Applicant's generator and the continuance of noise after the end of authorised trading hours.

In order to address the cause of the nuisance the Sub Committee found it necessary to attach the following further conditions to the renewed consent:

1.      Any generator used by the Consent holder shall be a 'quiet' generator approved in writing by the Licensing Authority.

2.      All materials shall be cleared away and the allocated space vacated no later than 30 minutes after the end of operational hours.

3.      Clear signs shall be displayed at the point of sale reminding customers to remain quiet and respect local residents.

The Sub Committee wished to remind the Applicant that even once renewed the Consent could be referred back to the Sub Committee at any time if conditions continued to be breached with the possibility of revocation of the Consent. 

Decision:

The Application for renewal of street trading consent is granted for a period of 12 months. The consent is granted subject to the Oxford City Council general conditions applicable to street trading consents and the additional conditions set out above.