New opposition emerges to Bucks Council's controversial street trading proposals

Buckinghamshire Council’s draft street trading policy will ‘kill community events’, volunteers have said.

The council said its new policy will ‘ensure that there is a clear and consistent framework for regulating street trading in Buckinghamshire’.

However, event organisers and others have slammed the policy, which is out for public consultation until 26 May.

Part of the issue, critics say, is the definition of ‘consent street’ – or in other words, the areas where a council licence will be required to trade.

The draft policy reads: “The definition is not limited to the public highway and can include the public realm and private, but publicly accessible areas, such as retail shopping centre car parks and open spaces.”

Critics say this will have a significant impact on organisations and groups who organise community events on streets or in parks.

They argue that this wording means the policy overreaches by interfering with town and parish councils wanting to organise events on land they own that is publicly accessible.

Events such as Amersham’s Heritage Day organised by Amersham Town Council, could now face a ‘huge bureaucratic burden’ in complying with the new policy, ‘making it impossible to put on such events’, say critics.

Jane Barnes, the chairwoman of volunteer-run Amersham Action Group which organises the annual Christmas Festival in Amersham-on-the-Hill, said: “This policy will kill community events as it will be just far too much work for organisers to get the ridiculous amount of information Bucks Council require.”

More information on how to have your say is available online.