Causeway Coast and Glens Council to suspend criminal checks for Lammas Fair vendors

At an Environmental Services Committee meeting on Tuesday, May 14, members endorsed the suspension of AccessNI criminal record checks as a requirement for street trading applications at the Ballycastle fair.

Director of Environmental Services, Aidan McPeake, said the council agreed to suspend the checks last year because there are “very strictly grounds to refuse an application and the reason must be related to trading activities rather than for non-trading offences like a driving offence”.

He added: “We have no grounds to refuse a licence for anything raised within an AccessNI check, so it defeats the purpose of doing it.”

“The policy of requiring [AccessNI] criminal access checks caused considerable delays and difficulties when processing street trading applications for previous fairs and no applicants were recommended for refusal based on information contained in the criminal record checks in 2022.

“The checks were brought in at the request of members, but any instance where we tried to invoke it it was very difficult to stand over. In one case it was taken to the magistrates’ [court] and it was turned over, so it was brought in but hadn’t any teeth.

“We are finalising street trading policy now which will amend it, but until then we need members to suspend the checks as a requirement”.

UUP Councillor Darryl Wilson said the requirement was “always a wee bit baffling”.

Cllr Wilson said: “It there are issues with trading that maybe would put a question mark over their ability to pitch up a tent and trade, but someone who has a record and has served their debt to society doesn’t need an AccessNI check to rent a shop and sell items.”

“I don’t think we should be any different, and we don’t want to hamstring the event and see swaths of stalls with nobody at them because of the checks.”

This year’s Lammas Fair festivities will run from Saturday, August 24 until Tuesday, August 27 during which time thousands of visitors will flock to the historic fair.