Canterbury City Council Bill

Lord Strasburger Excerpts

Monday 3rd December 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Strasburger]

My Lords, I, too, was a member of the Select Committee that considered these Bills and I will start by thanking the noble Baroness, Lady Knight, who chaired the Select Committee with great patience and skill.

Most pedlars are itinerant and often go where the business takes them, selling hats, scarves, other items of clothing, key rings and balloons. They are true entrepreneurs, adapting their products and location to what their customers want and where the market is. They add colour and diversity to our increasingly uniform shopping streets. The fact that they can make a living as pedlars suggests that they provide a useful service and, so far as the committee could tell, they appear to do no one any harm at all.

The Bills as drafted sought to end the pedlars’ exemption from street trading laws so that they would not be able to operate on the street in areas designated by the four local authorities that are pushing the Bills. The Bills as presented to the Select Committee also introduced fixed penalties and a power for officials to seize pedlars’ goods. The committee spent a lot of time trying to discover why the four local authorities wanted these powers. We were told that pedlars sell sub-standard goods, but no evidence whatever was offered to prove this allegation, and we have no reason to believe that their goods are any better or worse than those sold by licensed street traders. It was alleged that pedlars create a situation that attracts pickpockets, but again, no evidence was offered. It was also said that pedlars cause obstruction of the highway. Little evidence for this allegation was offered apart from a small number of cases where wide and expanding trolleys had been used.

The witnesses who spoke for the local authorities were somewhat unconvincing. We heard evidence from pedlars that many council officers and the police are ignorant about the 1871 Act, and we also heard much evidence of a bullying culture on the part of council officials towards honest and hard-working pedlars. I concluded that the real reason why these councils wish to exempt themselves from the 1871 Act is that they are control freaks who resent the freedom that pedlars enjoy. I also suspect that there is pressure from licensed street traders, who compete with the few pedlars in their area and who pay considerably more than a pedlar’s licence for their trading pitch. However, for the extra fees that licensed street traders pay, they get the benefit of a fixed pitch where they can trade all day without having to move on. If they think that pedlars get an unfair advantage, there is nothing to stop them applying for a pedlar’s licence themselves.

The committee made several important amendments to the Bills. Pedlars will still be able to operate on the street in the designated areas provided that their trolleys do not obstruct the highway. The amendments set maximum dimensions for the trolleys to bring clarity to this issue. The amendments reduce the number of reasons that a local authority can use to designate an area. We deleted the seizure powers, which we thought could easily have been abused by council officials. We added a requirement for better training of council officials on trading laws and a requirement for local authorities to make their rules and designated areas clear on their websites. We also constrained the value of fixed penalties. Therefore, we have turned what I believe to have been four bad Bills into four not so bad Bills. We have removed or neutered their most repressive aspects.

I have to say that, if it had been down to me alone, I would have made only one amendment to each Bill, and I would have done that with the help of the nearest shredder. But in deference to my more experienced colleagues on the committee, I have agreed to a set of amendments that reduce the detrimental impact of these Bills, and it is the amended Bill that is before the House today.