Issue - meetings

Matter for Decision

The report detailed the proposed changes to the market fees and charges for the financial year 2018/19.

 

Decision of Executive Councillor for Waste Services and City Centre.

 

     i.        Approved the price changes for market fees and charges for the financial year 2018/19 as set out in the Officer’s report:

 

Reason for the Decision

As set out in the Officer’s report.

 

Any Alternative Options Considered and Rejected

Not applicable.

 

Scrutiny Considerations

The Committee received a report from the Markets and Street Trading Development Manager.

 

The report highlighted that on the General & Sunday Market, the Premium pitches continued to perform very well for all days of trading. The Standard pitches also performed well, between Wednesday and Sunday. To increase the attractiveness of the Standard pitches on Mondays and Tuesdays on the General & Sunday Market, the proposal was to drop the charge. To compensate for the associated reduction in income arising from the proposed reduction in charge, would see an introduction of  applying a marginally higher than corporate recommended inflationary adjustment to the fees for the daily Premium pitches and for the standard pitches, between Wednesday and Sunday.

 

In response to Members’ questions the Markets and Street Trading Development Manager said the following:

     i.        There had been no charge to the market traders who took part in five night markets held in 2017 giving an additional opportunity for income and potential new client base.

    ii.        There had been a 70% spending increase for cleansing the market than two years ago. This included in the increase an additional 2 hours mid-day clean seven days a week. 

   iii.        Acknowledged that there was more that could be done to improve the market.

  iv.        Cambridge City Council offered free social media classes to the market traders in order to promote their business and the market.

   v.        Believed the charges to be fair and balanced, highlighting the reduction of charges of a standard pitch to trade in the centre of Cambridge on Monday and Tuesday.

  vi.        Traders also needed to take responsibility for the cleansing and hygiene of the market. There had been a number of proposals put forward in item 12 of the agenda (Revisions to General & Sunday Charter) to improve the cleanliness and waste problems which had been highlighted by the traders.

 

The Executive Councillor stated the Market Team worked very hard to ensure that the market was run seven days a week. The team had recently won the national award ‘Market Team of the Year’ and Cambridge had placed second in ‘Britain’s Favourite Market’. She acknowledged the negative comments from the survey but stated there were also positive comments. It was hoped that the £10.00 pitches would encourage more traders which would bring more business to all and have a full market on Mondays and Tuesdays. 

 

One of the issues with cleanliness was the boards which the traders were given on a daily basis and asked to return at the end of the day. Due to instances of the boards being left out overnight (which hindered the cleaning of them by the street cleansing team) this had prompted the change in regulation.

 

The Executive Councillor concluded that she would look further into the matter of the issue of the market being left in need of an emergency clean in the morning (when required) and highlighted Cambridge BID’s call out team for emergency cleaning.

 

The Committee endorsed the recommendations by 5 votes to 0.

 

The Executive Councillor approved the recommendations.

 

Conflicts of Interest Declared by the Executive Councillor (and any Dispensations Granted)

 

No conflicts of interest were declared by the Executive Councillor