Licences & Permits

by Martin
(Hampshire)

I have looked around this site with regards to permits / licences, as I'm seeking to purchase a small catering trailer in the future I contacted my local council with regards to what is required. My local council pointed me in the right direct with who I needed to contact, which I did, and received a lot of feedback, but from reading on here the councils seem to make it difficult.

So to that end I will briefly expand on what I got back from my local council which sounded pretty straight forward I have to say, basically they said I do not require any permit/licence as such to trade, I need to get all the certificates in order, i.e. gas cert/electric cert, my Food & Hygiene cert, yes I understand all that as I’m an ex chef with knowledge on most of this.

To trade between 2300hrs-0500hrs I would require a permit/licence, also the same applies if I would sell alcohol. I would have to inform the council 28 days prior to trading regarding my trailer in order for them to then visit to inspect (again I was aware of this) I then asked if I needed anything to trade in and around my local area, NO was the reply, all I had to do was inform the Highways agency/ authority, I then asked if they have a list of areas where I can and can't trade, they said not a list but streets in which you can't trade, and I could apply to trade when there was "special events" on and that it would cost me £40 a day to trade, which I thought was pretty ok. They then told me that I would have to inform the Highways agency/authority if I was to begin trading somewhere.

I had found, this is where I think the problem lies, now I have had no contact with them as yet, but my question is this, do they then set a rental price? Also is it still the same principle where you have to get in contact with the land owner etc etc etc...