Street trading consent

You will usually need street trading consent if you sell goods, food or drink on a street maintained by Buckinghamshire Council.

This includes:

• selling food or drink from a vehicle, such as a catering van, coffee van, ice cream van or trailer
• selling goods from a stall or portable trailer
• trading from a fixed location on a public highway

For street trading purposes, a street includes:

• roads
• pavements
• footpaths
• other areas the public can access without paying

Street trading consent is valid for up to 12 months.

View our Street Trading policy.

You will not usually need street trading consent if you trade:

• on private land with the owner's permission
• in a shopping centre
• in a private car park
• on hospital land
• on railway land
• on land owned by a town or parish council
• at certain community events that are exempt

You do not need consent if you're only supplying or offering to supply any service. 

There are also legal exceptions for:

• certified pedlars
• established markets
• sellers of newspapers or periodicals
• petrol station forecourts
• shop fronts
• roundsman (for example, pre-ordered milk deliveries)
• pavement licence holders
• authorised charity collectors

If you're not sure whether you need consent, contact the Licensing Team before you start trading.

We will normally refuse applications to sell:

• tobacco products
• vapes and e-cigarettes
• energy drinks intended for people under 16
• sky lanterns
• plastic or helium balloons
• single-use plastics
• drug-related paraphernalia
• offensive or sexually explicit items
• animals being sold as pets

We will normally refuse applications in areas where parking restrictions apply unless approved by the council's parking service.

We may refuse applications to sell hot food near a school, nursery or college where this would conflict with our public health objectives.

If you are a mobile trader, we may restrict when you can trade near school entrances (for example avoiding drop-off and pick-up times).

Some traders who are exempt may still want street trading consent to show that they meet our standards or to be listed on our public register.

In these cases, traders can choose to apply for street trader consent. The same application process and fees will apply as they do for other applicants.