Brighton and Hove City council want to impose a new rule to the historic and popular Upper Gardner Street Saturday Market in Brighton that has been in it's present form with marked and numbered pitches since the 1920's.

The ruling has always been that Licensed Street Traders in Upper Gardner Street, could  'place, store or sell, expose or offer for sale any article outside the area marked at the specific site.'   

                         If that space was clear.

Now the Council licensing team are 'consulting on reviewing their policy so that traders in Upper Gardner Street can no longer spread beyond marked pitch boundaries'

                  Even if there are several empty pitches.

     Those that have not been let or that are unattended on the day.

                  There are, consistently, many clear spaces.

 If traders cannot spread this will leave the market looking nearly     deserted, more that  half empty and completely uninviting.

Consent holders trading at specific registered sites out side of this market and across the city are limited to  boundaries.These tend to be sole traders.  Fruit or seasonal sellers, Christmas papers, chestnuts and the like and these boundary rules seem appropriate to their work pattern and are not in dispute here.

Upper Gardner Street Saturday Market is and always has been a number of Stalls set up in rows along both sides of the street.

To enforce needless restrictions such as are suggested will be to destroy the ambience and character of the market.If the traders are constrained without any flexibility then the market will lose the appeal that it functions on.

The Council have stated that the aim of this change 'is to make their policy more transparent, enforceable and consistent. Officers can see no rationale for making an exception for Upper Gardner Street.

I have attempted above to offer the 'rationale' for leaving the regulations for Upper Gardner Street as they stand and have stood in this feature of Brighton's character since 1920 and before.

Thank you for considering this information.