News / Politics
Parks business licenses ‘debacle’ could be paused in extraordinary council meeting
Labour councillors have called an extraordinary meeting to consider the future of licenses that now charge a variety of small businesses for using Bristol’s green spaces.
Labour claim that the correct constitutional process was not followed ahead of the introduction of the controversial parks business licenses now necessary for everyone from professional dog walkers to mother-and-baby choirs.
It comes after Labour recently called another extraordinary meeting that led to the reinstatement of the council-funded nighttime economy adviser role after it was scrapped.
According to the Labour group, an extraordinary meeting of the public health & communities committee should look in detail at how the new licenses have been implemented.
They also want to be able to debate and make a binding decision on either the cancelling of the parks business licences entirely, a pause on its implementation pending a full review or retaining the existing scheme.
Labour councillor Carole Johnson, vice chair of the public health & communities committee, said: “There has been public uproar about the Green / Lib Dem decision to undemocratically impose excessive charges on Bristol’s small businesses.
“This clearly is a controversial issue. The least the public deserve is for their elected representatives to discuss it more thoroughly.
“Since the committee system was introduced, a committee has not considered it once. There is a clear democratic deficit here.
“There are obvious inconsistencies between different businesses facing charges, a lack of evidence as to how the charges were decided, and rules and regulations that businesses view as unnecessary.
“Residents and businesses of Bristol already pay a significant level of tax to maintain our city’s parks. Charges, on top of tax, seem excessive.
“Scrapping the charges is ultimately a decision for the Green / Lib Dem administration; this extraordinary meeting will give them the opportunity to do so.
“We know this has been discussed in private meetings with only Green and Liberal Democrat policy committee chairs present, yet they have proceeded anyway.
“The committee system promised transparency, accountability and accessibility for the public. All three of the principles have been sorely lacking in this debacle.”
Bring Your Own Baby choir practice in St George Park – photo: Kiran Dhami
In a statement sent to Bristol24/7, the Green members of the public health & communities committee – Ed Fraser, Fi Hance, Cara Lavan and Abdul Malik – said: “Greens understand that the way the parks licensing scheme is being rolled out is disproportionately negatively impacting micro-businesses who operate in parks.
“We also understand the council needs to be legally covered in situations where it might be liable for organisations using its land for paid for activities.
“The decision to implement these licenses was made under the previous Labour administration.
“The decision to move forward with it has been made under a Labour vice-chair and a Lib Dem chair of the PH&C committee.”
Labour refute these claims, however, saying that the Labour vice-chair, Johnson, was not involved in the decision, which was was taken by the Liberal Democrat chair, Stephen Williams, in consultation with Green Party policy committee chairs and the leadership of the council.
Labour say the decision then went to a meeting of the leader and policy committee chairs in 2025 for discussion, prior to proceeding.
A parks license was first discussed by the previous mayoral administration in May 2018 but was never implemented.
Main photo: Martin Booth
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