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Guidance for Operators of Open Air Markets and Car Boot Sales

Haringey Council do not have any market sites within the borough. There are however, privately run car boots sales and farmers market at various places in the borough. If you wish to operate a market in the borough, continue reading below.

What is an Open Air Market?

A market has been defined as a concourse (place) of buyers and sellers of articles held otherwise in a building and comprising of not less than five stalls, stands, vehicles (whether movable or not) or pitches from which articles are sold.

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Do I need planning consent?

A market can be operated from a site on 14 days in any one year without the need for Planning Permission. (This is permitted under Class B of Part 4 of the Town and Country Planning General Permitted Development Order 1995), but you do need to give notice, see 'Who may apply?' below.

Anything over the 14 days will require planning permission.

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Who may apply?

For a temporary market (one where you do not need Planning Permission) the Council has to be given proper notice. (This is required under Section 37 of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982). You do not have to do this however if the funds raised are to be applied solely or principally for charitable, social, sporting or political purposes.

You must ensure that health and safety issues are given priority in setting up the sites.

The information below must be given to the council one month before the proposed start date of the market:

  • Written permission from the owner of the site
  • Address and details of the site
  • Organiser's full name and address
  • The dates proposed to hold the market
  • Opening and closing times
  • Public liability insurance
  • Details of any waste contract
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What happens next?

A Street Enforcement Officer will contact the organiser to discuss the proposal.

The general site layout will be considered together with the surface and land drainage arrangements. Toilet facilities for stallholders, their helpers and the public will be inspected. Both on and off site parking arrangements will be discussed together with emergency evacuation procedures, general fire, noise prevention and safety measures. Other Officers may be brought on site including those from the Police, Fire Service, Trading Standards and the Environmental Health Service (See the external links section below). Officers will visit the site when the market is running and some of these visits will be unannounced inspections.

You can place advertisements in the local newspapers or even on commercial radio. If you put up placards, billboards or fly-post in the street they will be taken down by Street Enforcement Officers and you will be prosecuted. If you intend to give out leaflets in the streets you may also need a Licence. The Council also maintains a list of people who are interested in trading at market sites and have given permission for their names and addresses to be passed onto reputable market organisers.

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Are sellers liable for goods that they sell?

You may have the situation, particularly with second-hand goods, of a trader knowingly or unknowingly selling stolen property, counterfeit goods and unsafe or otherwise illegal items. Police and Council Officers have certain powers to prosecute and members of the public can also bring civil actions.

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Insurance

Both the organiser and each individual stallholder should have insurance to cover any eventuality. The organiser can be faced with a claim of somebody stumbling on an uneven surface seeking compensation for a stay in hospital, loss of income and general inconvenience. A stallholder could face a claim for an incident resulting from their stall collapsing or causing injury to a customer by having sold them a dangerous product.

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What happens if the council isn't notified?

A person who without giving notice holds a temporary market or permits land occupied by them to be used as a temporary market shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine of £2,500.

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Contact

Street Enforcement Team
Frontline Services
Units 271 - 272
Lee Valley Technopark
Ashley Road
Tottenham
London
N17 9LN

Tel 020 8489 1000
Fax 020 8489 5133

Email enforcement@haringey.gov.uk

The following links are not part of the Haringey Council website. Please read our legal disclaimer before using these links

Page Last Updated: 15 December 2011

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