Town Clerk’s Response to Casual Traders Licence Issue

Below is a response from Cobh Town Clerk with regard to our article ‘Local Casual Trader Peter Kidney Loses Trading Licence After 15 Years’ http://cobhedition.com/?p=17730

Casual Trading Licences are issued by Cobh Town Council in accordance with Casual Trading Bye Laws which are adopted by the elected members of the Council. In 2010, the Council reviewed the Casual Trading Byelaws and made a number of changes to the Bye Laws. Up to then, the cost of a licence was the same whether a trader operated for 1 day of for 4 days. Under the 2010 Bye Laws, the licence fee was now payable per day. A number of Casual Traders, including Mr. Kidney wrote to the Council asking for this to be reviewed, as they maintained that their operating costs had been increased by up to 400%. In April, 2011, the members of the Council agreed to carry out a further review of the Bye Laws, and the amended Bye Laws were adopted in October, 2011. Under the 2011 Bye Law, the previous fee arrangement was restored, meaning that a licence to trade 4 days per week was now the same as a licence for a single day.

Mr. Kidney has not lost his licence – his most recent Casual Trading licence expired in May, 2011. Cobh Town Council did not prevent Mr. Kidney from renewing his licence; indeed, application forms were sent to him in July, 2011. The Council has not issued Mr. Kidney with parking tickets – a number of fixed charge notices in relation to trading without a valid casual trading licence have been issued in accordance with the Bye Laws.

Cobh Town Council had received a number of applications for casual trading licence in 2012. In view of the fact that Mr. Kidney had not renewed his licence for a period of 9 months, the Council was fully entitled to issue licences in respect of these applications. The Council has written to Mr. Kidney outlining the current availability of casual trading bays, and Mr. Kidney is entitled to apply for a licence for these bays.

Your article refers to the petition submitted by Mr. Kidney. This petition was submitted to the Council on 1st November, 2011, almost 2 weeks after the Council had adopted the Bye Laws. It should be noted that the Council had advertised the fact that the Bye Laws were being reviewed at the start of the review process, and had invited submissions from the public. No submission had been received from Mr. Kidney as part of that process prior to the petition. The petition stated that the Council was proposing to increase the casual trading fees – in fact the opposite was the case. Having increased the fees in 2010, the Council in 2011 agreed to reduce them again. The Council did not dismiss the petition as irrelevant – as far as the Council were concerned, the major complaints which existing traders had in relation to the cost of the licence had been addressed in the review of the Bye Laws.

I reject the suggestion that Mr. Kidney was treated unfairly. Cobh Town Council did not prevent Mr. Kidney from applying for a licence at any stage during the last 9 months when he has been trading without a licence. In addition, the fact that Mr. Kidney has been effectively trading illegally for 9 months would not prevent the Council from issuing him with a new licence if he were to submit an application.

Regards,

Páraig Lynch,
Town Clerk,
Cobh Town Council.

Additional Response from Mayor of Cobh, Cllr Jim Quinlan

The total annual cost to trade is ?400 for four days per week which amounts to ?1.92 per trading day. When the new by-laws were unanimously accepted this fee was considered very reasonable. In response to the claim that I have not responded to Mr. Kidney’s letter, I was responding to his concerns a number of weeks ago over the telephone when he became verbally abusive to me and became personally insulting. I have not received any communication from Mr. Kidney since that conversation.