Regular readers of these pages will be aware of an ongoing issue relating to how the county council proposes to change the way it issues its catering concessions licences to traders in County Durham.
My particular concern has been for the owner of the food and drinks business currently trading at the picnic area at Blackhall Rocks, although many others across the county are likely to be affected. Full details can be found in the article published on Wednesday 17 August 2022: https://robcrute-blackhall.blogspot.com/2022/08/update-on-campaign-to-defend-popular.html
I have now received an additional update from officers at county hall who have been carrying out the review into traders' licences and how they propose to distribute them across the county.
The response isn't the outcome we wanted but unfortunately it’s typical of the Tory-led Coalition's dismissive approach to businesses in County Durham and also its apparent reluctance to nurture the economy along the coast and other potentially viable visitor locations.
I’ve noted that the council intends to contact affected businesses across the county as soon as their review is concluded. At that point we’ll consider the potential impact of the review and do whatever we can to help to any business or trader affected by this heavy-handed and damaging approach to our local economy. Our local traders need a helping hand at the moment, not a one-sided and ill-timed review that holds them back.
In the meantime this is the officers’ latest update in full:
Good afternoon Councillor Crute
Further to the [previous email] below, we can advise as follows:
The review of catering concessions on Durham County Council (DCC) land has been led by Corporate Property and Land (CPaL) and was established after there were requests to occupy DCC land including land at Crimdon and Seaham. Investigations were undertaken to establish the current position. It was established that traders did not have landowner’s consent to occupy DCC land. This review has entailed collaborative working with Community Protection, Environment, Planning, Procurement and Public Health. A report went to Corporate Property Board (CPB) with a proposed system and this was presented to officers and subsequently approved.
Following CPB, further work has been undertaken including how the new system will work. Ecology have provided a coastal strategy for assessing use of DCC land for traders. There have been planning applications submitted for a change of use for sites. These are currently going through the planning process. This will ensure that appropriate consents are in place. There is also ongoing work for a procurement system for traders. The new system will mean that a trader will only be issued with a street trading consent/licence covering DCC land if they have landowner’s consent from CPaL.
The review has been led by officers in CPaL who are proactively managing DCC’s property and land holdings.
This will ensure that there is a new fair and transparent system. This will enable traders to bid for sites as they will be offered on the market. There will be landowner’s consent, planning consent and street trading consent. At present there is not landowner’s consent or planning consent in place for traders to trade on DCC land. They are in effect trespassing.
Land at Blackhall Rocks is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and lies next to internationally important sites. As such, this means that there will be trading restrictions with the new system. These restrictions will help to protect the environment. Blackhall Rocks trading season will be from 1st April until 30th September. Please note that some sites will be until 31st October and this is dependent upon the ecological situation at each site.
We can confirm that a member’s briefing has already been drafted and will be issued in the coming weeks.
We hope to be able to provide traders with an update at the earliest opportunity.
Kind regards
