LLANDUDNO councillors have blasted Conwy County Council officers and senior cabinet members for failing to consult them over plans to allow market stalls on 15 streets across the town.
At a meeting of the council’s General Licensing Committee at Coed Pella, councillors voted against going out to consultation on proposals to redesignate several streets from “prohibited” to “consent streets”.
Had the legislation change gone ahead following the consultation, the move would have allowed traders to apply for permission to sell goods under the council’s Street Trading Policy, subject to a fee and approval.
Among the streets listed was Mostyn Street, the town’s main high street.
The application was submitted by the council’s events manager, Adrian La Trobe.
But several Llandudno members criticised the proposals, saying residents had already raised concerns about the suitability of some locations.
Councillors said the plans were poorly thought out, aggravating to residents, and potentially wasted time and money the council didn’t have.
Conservative councillor Harry Saville, a member of the licensing committee, described the plans as “bizarre”, questioning why the council was pursuing byelaw changes linked to “Pride and Place” funding before a neighbourhood board had even been appointed.
“The list of roads I thought was, frankly, bizarre. One road mentioned was Dale Road,” he said.
“Now Dale Road, the best estimate on my part, is around 110 yards long. The roads either end of it, West Parade and Great Ormes Road, are both prohibited streets, so we know that street trading cannot take place on either of those roads or within 50 yards of them, so that means the first 50 yards each end of Dale Road will remain prohibited effectively if this council follows its own policy.
“So you’re allowing street trading to take place within a 10-yard patch. I’m not really sure that’s practical. Is an ice-cream van or other vehicle going to fit in that space?” Cllr Saville also criticised the lack of consultation with local members.
Cllr Louise Emery, who is not on the committee, raised similar concerns and questioned why Llandudno councillors had not been approached by officers or the relevant cabinet member. “You know we are very active councillors in the ward,” she said.
“You know we know the wards very well and therefore the prohibitive streets to be redesignated could have been quite a different list.
“We could have warned you off some of them, which we know will be a waste of consultation time and officers’ time and money because we know they will be rejected. There are some streets that may have been missed.”
She added: “I just cannot believe, with all our knowledge, that the applicant, which essentially is the council, didn’t come and sit down with us and discuss this.”
Cllr Emery said councillors could have reassured residents there would not be “burger vans on every corner”, but instead the lack of communication had “wound the residents up”. She said residents and retailers had contacted her fearing there would be “street traders all the way down Mostyn Street”.
Responding, the council’s entertainment manager Adrian La Trobe said the intention was to “enable” events and support economic activity in the county.
“We saw this request for it to go out to consultation very much as being something that enables and makes it easier for people to be doing activity in our county rather than neighbouring ones,” he said.
He acknowledged the lack of communication, adding that he took on board concerns about talking to members. He then added he could have “pre-empted the need to speak to some of our Llandudno members” and offered his “heartfelt apologies”.
The committee voted against the move with five votes against, four in favour, and two abstentions.
