Apply for street trading consent
Before you apply for Street trading consent, you need to choose a location that you think is suitable for the type of trading you want to carry out. The Council do not provide a consent that covers more than one location.
Once you have found your location you can download and complete the application form
Apply for a Street trading consent
When you have completed the online application form you will also need to include:
- A location plan of the area where you wish to trade
- A photograph of the vehicle you wish to trade from
- proof that you have registered with us if you are selling food
Landlords Consent: Please be advised before submitting an application that you have received permission from the landowner to trade from the specified location(s). Receiving Street trading consent from the District Council does not substitute this requirement.
Fees
The fees for Street trading consent are:
- Annual licence to trade one day a week £111.00
- Annual licence to trade two days a week £194.00
- Annual licence to trade three days a week £265.00
- Annual licence to trade four days a week £332.00
- Annual licence to trade five days a week £441.00
- Annual licence to trade six days a week £498.00
- Annual licence to trade seven days a week £553.00
- Single day's trading for one trader £23.00
- Single day's trading for between 2 and 10 traders £44.00
- Single day's trading for between 11 and 19 traders £60.00
- Single day's trading for over 20 traders £77.00
Timescales
Once we receive your application, we will:
- acknowledge it within three working days
- validate your application
If the application is valid, we will start a 10-working day consultation process with:
- Essex Police
- Essex County Highways
- Environmental Health
- our Planning team
- the relevant district ward member
We may also consult similar businesses in the area that may be affected by your application or other street traders selling the same types of products within 500 metres of the proposed location where you intend to trade.
Approval
If we do not receive any objections to your application, we will grant you with Street trading consent for a 12-month period.
If we receive any objections, we will present the application to the Licensing Committee for councillors to consider and we will notify you once the Committee have made their decision.
We may refuse your Street trading consent if:
- adverse comments are received from the consulted parties
- there isn't enough space in the street you wish to trade in, without causing interference or inconvenience to street users
- you have previously failed to pay fees due under another street trading consent or have failed to use a previous street trading consent
Under certain circumstances, we may still grant a Street trading consent but it may be for fewer days than you applied for or to allow trade in certain items only.
We will either grant your Street trading consent or serve a notice on you within a reasonable time. We will serve the notice if we intend to:
- refuse the application
- grant it on different terms than those you applied for
- confine trading to a particular place in a street
- vary the conditions of a licence
- revoke a licence
We may revoke a Street trading consent after we have granted it. This may be for a variety of reasons such as:
- non-compliance with conditions
- non-payment of fees
- because other agencies such as highways department require access to the trading location
We will give you at least 10 days’ notice if we revoke your street trading consent.
Appeal our decision
If we refuse your application for a Street trading consent you can appeal to our Head of Environment to review the decision.
You should contact our Licensing team to discuss your appeal in the first instance.
Street trading consent exemptions
You do not need a Street trading consent if you are:
- a pedlar with a pedlar's certificate issued by a police authority
- a market trader operating at a licensed market venue
- a news vendor selling only newspapers and periodicals
- trading at a petrol station
- a roundsman with regular customers
- part of a charity collection where you have a valid permit
If you are trading on private land, you may not need a Street trading consent. You should contact our Licensing team to discuss. The landowner may still need planning permission and should contact our Planning team.
