Resolved – That Councillor J Stewart-Laing be appointed Chair for this meeting.

Members of the Panel are asked to declare any disclosable pecuniary and non pecuniary interests in connection with any application on the agenda and state the nature of the interest.

Members of the Panel were asked to declare any disclosable pecuniary and non-pecuniary interests in connection with any application on the agenda and state the nature of the interest.

No such declarations were made.

The Director of Law and Corporate Services reported upon an application for a Market Rights Licence.  The application had been submitted by RREvent Solutions Limited and related to land at Ian Fraser Walk, New Brighton.  The market was to be known as New Brighton Continental Market.

It was reported that the Council had the sole right to operate a market in Birkenhead and had the right to prevent other markets taking place within the common law distance of 6 2/3 miles of Birkenhead Market. The request was for a market to take place on Ian Fraser Walk, New Brighton between 2 May 2025 and 5 May 2025.  It was reported that due to an objection being received relating to the potential impact that the market may have on local businesses, the application must be referred to the Licensing Panel for consideration in accordance with the Market Rights Policy which was attached at Appendix 1 to the report. 

The details of the application were set out within the report.  A copy of the Application Form including the Plan of the proposed area to be licensed had been provided to Members.

In determining the application the Licensing Panel were advised that they may grant a Market Rights Licence to allow the market to take place as applied for, it may refuse the application or it may allow the market to take place under certain conditions determined by the Licensing Panel which may include a defined period of time during which the licence had effect.

In respect of this application, one representation had been received which had been submitted on behalf of local businesses in New Brighton.  The representation related to concerns that granting the application for the Bank Holiday weekend would take trade away from local businesses.  A copy of the representation had been provided to Members.

The applicant attended the meeting.  A representative of the individual who had submitted a representation on behalf of local businesses was also in attendance.

The applicant addressed the Panel and advised that RR Events Solutions operated markets throughout the UK every week to bring extra footfall which they considered helped to support local businesses.  Members were informed that the applicant had previously applied for a Market Rights Licence in this location last year and further to objections raised and the application being refused, the applicant had visited the area during August Bank Holiday and found that the businesses operating in New Brighton had not been busy.  The applicant advised that the market would have fifteen different varieties of food from around the world and in their view this did not conflict local businesses.  The applicant informed Members that Traders depended on these type of events and that there would be over forty traders, about ten of which would be from Wirral.  Members were advised that due to the representation highlighting the fact that the May Bank Holiday forms part of the VE 80^th anniversary, an important part of which would be to support local  ...  view the full minutes text for item 94.