Street trading licence
If you want to sell goods on roads, pavements and other areas to which the public have unrestricted access you need a street trading licence. A licence gives permission for a certain pitch and specifies the days and times you can sell on both public and private land.
Street trading is prohibited in parts of Tonbridge, Hadlow and the Blue Bell Hill area.
You do not need consent if you are:
- trading as a peddler under licence issued by a police authority
- a market trader operating at a licensed market venue
- a news vendor selling only newspapers and periodicals
- if you are trading on private land you may not need consent
We recently reviewed the street trading guidance and propose to introduce a new policy. Following a public consultation with residents, local business and street traders, the Licensing and Appeals committee have now approved these changes and the redesignation of the borough.
The redesignation will see the whole borough designated as consent streets meaning anyone wishing to trade will require consent from the council before trading. There are some exemptions, including farmers markets, school fares, charity events and other non-commercial trading, more details will be outlined in the policy.
Next steps
Our second consultation closed on 9 November 2022. Thank you to those who made comments.
Following the meeting of the Licensing and Appeal committee on 29 November 2022, the committee approved the redesignation of the borough to consent streets and also the introduction of the new policy. These changes will now await final adoption at Full Council in February 2023. Following the adoption, we are then required to publish two further notices before the new regime comes into force on 1 April 2023.
From this date, all commercial traders will require consent to trade.
Further updates and applications forms will be available on this page during March 2023.