Market Traders without Licences

I walked along Bethnal Green Road market today and noticed that out of the 40 stalls in the market only 12 had displayed valid Stall Holder Licences.

Tower Hamlets has very clear Street Trading rules. The following sections of the Standard Licencing Conditions are relevant to this cause:

5.4 A licence holder will visibly display the Trader’s identifying pitch card as supplied by the Council on his/her receptacle.

also


8.0 REFUSE
8.1 A licence holder shall ensure that waste arising from the business is securely placed in either his/her own suitable container or that supplied by the Council, and stored within the pitch or at some other location identified for that purpose; gangways and other passageways are not to be obstructed.
8.2 A licensed holder is to ensure that all waste water, and other waste liquids, are collected in a secure container and discharged in such a way as not to cause a nuisance or hazard.
8.3 A licence holder shall give every assistance to any contractor employed in the refuse and cleansing service.
8.4 Any arrangement that the Council makes for refuse collection and street cleansing does not free a licence holder of responsibilities under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (or any similar subsequent legislation).

These conditions are not being followed. In theory, this non-compliance means that offending traders could have their licence revoked.

Investigation begins

OK, I sent off a few emails to various people about the state of things - 1) Tower Hamlets Street Management and 2) McDonald's Head Office.

I also requested a few statistics from Tower Hamlets under the Freedom of Information Act. I want to understand exactly how much they are doing about litter in our borough. The new changes to the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environments Act 2005 gives local authorities a lot more power. I hope they are making use of it.

While digging around I stumbled across the environment targets document for Tower Hamlets for 2006/07. This has some interesting material in it.

Launch of the Local Environment Teams (LETS) – 2005/06 saw the introduction of LETS teams across the Borough who areworking closely with communities and safer neighbourhood teams to quickly target Enviro Crime, dumping, litter, graffiti and flyposting and respond more effectively to local priorities.

Our LETS manager seems to have gone - so I'm going to track the new one down. I've been out of touch for about six months.

Objective and Lead Officer - To improve the cleanliness of the borough’s streets including housing estates and parks.
Contact officer: John Palmer, Service Head - Street Services (Ext. 6769)
Key Activity - Implement enforcement activities to tackle Envirocrime (SP)
Progress Milestones
- Number of fixed penalty notices for trade and fast food establishments increased from 1,035 to 2,500 by March 2007, with 1,250 issued by September 2006
- To issue 100 fixed penalty notices for dumping of domestic waste under new legislative powers, with 30 issued by September 2006
- 150 private properties assisted with graffiti and flyposting removal by September 2006, with 300 assisted by March 2007
- To issue 200 notices for illegal flyposting by March 2007 under new legislative powers, with 60 issued by September 2006

I'll also check how they are progressing with the achievable targets mentioned above.

The campaign begins

I'm so fed up with all the litter in our street that I've started a personal campaign. This blog will be my journal to attack those lazy or complacent enough to litter in our street. If you'd like to help or get in touch then you can email me at littermonitoring@googlemail.com