Street traders could be allowed to expand across a major Liverpool shopping route under proposed new rules.
Currently, market stalls are only permitted along a designated section of Paradise Street, around Liverpool ONE, between Church Street and School Lane. This is currently owned and maintained by Liverpool Council.
Under new proposals by the local authority however, the owners and operators of Liverpool ONE could take over the management of market stalls around the busy trading area and expand the independent offer. According to documents released ahead of the city council’s street trading committee next week, from May 2023, an area of Paradise Street from its junction with School Lane to its junction with Hanover Street, would be designated as a consent street - effectively relaxing the permissions required for stalls to be set up.
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Grosvenor, which is responsible for Liverpool ONE, would then take over what the council describes as a “more flexible regime of street trading” in approved pitches. The report said: “The intention would be that if the redesignation is implemented Grosvenor would apply to the city council for several 12 month long-term consents to be held by Grosvenor in that part of Paradise Street.
“Grosvenor would be responsible for paying all required fees and would be responsible, as consent holder, for ensuring the consent conditions are complied with.” Under current rules, Paradise Street is designated as a licence street, meaning the city must grant traders permission to set up a stall with an official licence.
The new rules would allow a simple consent to allow for more stalls and easier set up. The remaining part of Paradise Street running between Church Street and its junction with School Lane shall remain designated as a Licence Street.
In September 2006 all streets within Liverpool, which had not been previously designated as licence or prohibited streets, were designated as consent streets. Prior to that date street trading in those streets had been unregulated.
Over the past 16 years a few other streets within the city centre, such as William Brown Street and the Pier Head, have been re-designated from prohibited to consent streets. Council documents said Grosvenor approached the city manager to request the change in status.
The proposal would not alter the current designation of that part of Paradise Street, running between Church Street and School Lane, as a licence street for the purposes of street trading. The five licensed street traders positioned in that section of the street would therefore remain located in their current licensed pitches.
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