Examination of Witness (Questions 33-39)
MR GAVIN ST JOHN WILDERS, Sworn: Examined by MR LEWIS
16 JUNE 2004
33. MR LEWIS: Would you like to introduce
yourself, Mr Wilders?
(Mr Wilders) Good
afternoon. I am Gavin St John Wilders, aged 38 years. I am employed
by Medway Council as the Head of Environmental Health and Enforcement
and I cochair an enforcement forum that was set up by the
Leader of our Council to ensure that there was regularised enforcement
throughout the Medway Council services and to make sure that there
was increased enforcement throughout Medway. I qualified as an
Environmental Health Officer in 1993 and have previously worked
for both London and district authorities. I joined Medway in 1998
and during that time I have headed environmental health, but I
also headed street scene services prior to that.
34. MR LEWIS: Can you just explain to
the Committee what wardens are and what they do?
(Mr Wilders) Part
of my role involves managing the Medway Warden Service. It is
a team of 22 enforcement officers whose main role is to provide
a contract monitoring service to the Council's main contracts,
those being the waste contract, highways and green spaces. The
service operates on a ward basis and each ward is allocated its
own warden. Historically each warden also has had responsibility
for customer enquiries related to the service and for any environmental
enforcement that was done in those wards areas such as fly-tipping.
However, when I took control of the service it was apparent that
the bulk of the workload was taken up by contracts monitoring
issues and enforcement was suffering. To combat this we formed
the Environmental Crime Action Team, which is a team of four enforcement
officers, one senior warden and three wardens and they concentrate
on environmental issues such as fly-tipping, abandoned vehicles
and illegal street trading. It would be that team who would be
enforcing the provisions of this Bill if it was enacted.
35. MR LEWIS: Can you just paint a picture
of Medway the area?
(Mr Wilders) Certainly.
As has previously been mentioned, Medway is a unitary authority.
It was created on 1 April 1998 by the amalgamation of two district
authorities, those being the City of Rochester upon Medway and
the Gillingham Borough Council. We have five distinct commercial
centres throughout Medway, ie Chatham, Gillingham, Rainham, Rochester
and Strood, each with their own town centres, and we serve a population
of approximately 250,000 people. These centres represent an eclectic
mix of both commercial tourists and historic activities. The three
main areas where we have most of the activity out of the five
are Chatham, Gillingham and Rochester and these attract visitors
from all over the world to a number of high profile festivals,
and Chatham town centre acts as the commercial centre for our
borough. It is in these areas that the main activity around illegal
trading exists and this leads to complaints from permanent traders
about obstruction, noise and odour problems. Following consultation
with town centre forums in these areas concerns were also expressed
by these forums around issues such as unfair competition and the
poor quality of the goods that were being offered for sale by
the traders.
36. MR LEWIS: Could you briefly describe
how the street trading legislation has been implemented in Medway?
Just briefly, there are different classes of streets which can
be allocated by the Council under the Act: there are prohibited
streets in which all street trading is prohibited and then there
are consent streets and licence streets, which are streets in
which street trading is prohibited unless the street trader has
either a consent, in the case of a consent street, or a licence,
in the case of a licence street. The Council can also choose not
to designate a street in its area.
37. CHAIRMAN: Do we need to know the
difference between consent and licence or does it not make a difference
in this case?
38. MR LEWIS: It does not really make
too much of a difference, but it will take ten seconds to answer
the question.
(Mr Wilders) Within
Medway we mainly have consent streets. The only streets that are
prohibited and they are listed in your bundle marked item
1 are main thoroughfares, bus routes or other areas where
we think there are street obstructions or busy thoroughfares where
it would not be practical to have a consent street with people
trading on it, which would include things like bypasses, major
bus routes, dual carriageways and some high street areas that
still have vehicle access to them.
39. MR LEWIS: In Medway street trading
is prohibited in those streets. Every other street in the borough,
as I understand it, is a consent street. So street trading is
only allowed with the consent of the local authority and with,
of course, the pedlar's certificate exemption applying. Could
you tell the Committee briefly about Chatham?
(Mr Wilders) Chatham
is the main commercial centre of Medway and was given consent
street status for the main High Street at a meeting of the full
Council on 25 September 2002. The High Street is a pedestrianised
area mainly of pre-war construction that provides a mix of commercial
and residential occupations. Regeneration and development in the
area has led to an increase in the number of pleasure activities
such as pubs and restaurants that are located in the High Street
and that extends the use of the High Street into the late evening.
This area is the main shopping centre for the borough and attracts
a number of flagship companies, for example Allders, Marks &
Spencer and Next, and footfall is heavy and consistent throughout
the week and is of a level comparable to a thriving city centre.
The area was given consent street status to encourage lawful trading
whilst controlling the retail mix of traders to ensure that the
goods offered are of a similar quality and standard to those that
are available from the permanent traders. However, at present
there has only been one application for permission to trade and
this is waiting to be determined.
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