Memorandum by the London Borough of Newham
(MARKETS 39)
Newham is pleased to respond to the Committee's
inquiry on how the provisions set out in the London Local Authority
Act 1990 (LLAA) affect our local authority.
On the whole, the LLAA is a very useful set of legislation
which provides officers with useful guidance on the daily operation
of the markets. The one reservation we do have and would like
to highlight however, is that some the legislation can be perceived
as unclear and ambiguous therefore leaving it open to different
interpretations by different officers.
Our main concern is with two sections of the
LLAA in particular:
1. Section 25 (11) states that a license holder can
at any time surrender his/her licence which means the licence
is no longer valid. However this is problematic given that the
process for re-letting a pitch can take up to four weeks. It would
take a couple of days for the Council to complete the process
of re-letting the pitch but the whole process often takes longer
because of logistical issues which the new trader may have. Often
these problems are caused by the trader does not yet have the
stock they need and more importantly because they do not have
Public Liability Insurance in place.
With these delays in mind, we recommend that
the any licence holder wishing to surrender their licence should
give at least four weeks notice.
This will result in income for the pitch to
carry on without any break.
2. Section 36 states that any assistant employed
by the said licensee is not held responsible if he/she fails to
comply with the condition of licence therefore the only person
responsible for non-compliance is the licensee. However, any one
who is working for the licensee should also have a responsibility
to comply with the terms of the license. Failure for any staff
who works for the licensee to comply could mean the demise of
the market. To avoid this and ensure that the license terms are
properly complied with, we recommend that any assistant/s employed
by the licensee should also be legally obligated to comply with
the license.
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