10:14am Saturday 16th August 2008
By Harry Walton
A MEETING of Weymouth and Portland licensing committee was plunged into confusion when it was advised to adjourn for legal reasons.
Members had been poised to hear evidence about an application for street trading consent to sell flowers at the back of the White Hart pub opposite Woolworth, Weymouth.
Several objectors turned up but not the applicant, and acting chairman Coun David Mannings was given legal advice that the meeting should adjourn in the interests of fairness'.
He was told that the Human Rights Act placed a duty on public authorities to ensure the right to a fair hearing and without the applicant being there this might not be possible.
But Weymouth and Portland Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Tourism secretary Michel Hooper-Immins, whose group objected to the application, said it would be quite wrong' to adjourn.
He said objectors had taken time off from their businesses to attend and he urged proceedings to go ahead.
Mr Mannings then ruled that the item would be put back on the agenda and other business dealt with while efforts were made to try and contact applicant Gemma Haydock so she could attend.
But when other work was completed and the meeting returned to the floral item councillors were told by environmental health and licensing manager Tony Beeson that the applicant was at a meeting she could not get out of but was happy for proceedings to go ahead without her.
Councillors then unanimously rejected her application after hearing from objectors.
Mr Hooper-Immins said: "Competition is an important part of business life but it has to be fair competition."
Sarah Standland of Pygmalion Florist in Westham Road said she feared being forced out of business because if someone else came in she would lose some of her passing trade.
She added: "My overheads are much more than someone operating from a gazebo and I want to keep my business running."
Martin Penny of Sunflowers in St Thomas Street said that market stall-style operators were a retrograde step' for an area where so much effort had been put into trying to attract upmarket businesses.
Objectors were delighted at seeing the application rejected and Mr Penny said: "I am very pleased.
"It is a victory for common sense."
Sarah Standland said that the decision would help me stay in business' while Mr Hooper-Immins said: "We feel this was a test case to prevent Weymouth town centre having rows of empty shops and lines of market stalls, so we are delighted at the decision."
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