Street Trading Permits

AuthorJames Madill
Published date01 January 1956
Date01 January 1956
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1177/0032258X5602900109
Subject MatterArticle
STREET
TRADING
PERMITS 39
for sureties to be found and the offender is committed to prison.
The examples that have been given do much to show the use
of
this
statute and it would appear
that
it would serve as an answer to the
circumstances described in the case of Fairclough v. Whipp (1951,
2 A.E.R. 834) where it was held
that
the invitation by a man to a
girl aged nine years to touch his exposed person, which the girl did,
without any touching of the girl by the man, did not constitute an
indecent assault.
The protection of life and property and the prevention and detection
of crime is the watchword of the Police Service,
and
it is satisfying to
know
that
by using a statute nearly six hundred years old it is possible
to reduce the activities of perverted men who accost young children
and
so prevent sexual crimes being committed.
Street
Trading
Permits
An Experiment in Local Licensing and Control
By
CHIEF
INSPECTOR
JAMES MADILL,
Registrar," City
of
Glasgow Police.
IT is proposed in this article to examine some aspects of a particular
type of extraneous duty frequently performed by the
Police-the
administration
and
enforcement of licensing systems, with particular
reference to the licensing and control of street traders by the City
of Glasgow Police. The word "licence" is here intended to include
certificates, permits, registrations,
and
the like, irrespective of their
actual title.
Licences generally may be regarded as falling within two broad
categories, those whose purpose is to raise revenue, e.g. Road
Fund
licences, and those which impose control by giving the issuing authority
power to regulate licence holders and withhold or suspend licences,
thus preventing persons exercising the function defined. Like most
licences that concern the Police, the street trading permits referred
to fell within the second category.
Immediately after the war, in Glasgow as elsewhere, problems
raised by street trading became acute. Government controls
and
shortage of commodities resulted in the appearance of the barrow
boy in large numbers. Exorbitant prices were general, false weights
were in common use, and obstruction in the city streets was serious.
Lack of shopping facilities in new housing estates also resulted in
an abnormal increase in so-called travelling shops. Existing powers
were inadequate. The Pedlars Act,1871, dealt only with persons

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