Councillors agree mobile cafe licences won’t go to highest bidder
A PROPOSAL that Wexford District Council seek minimum tenders of €2,000 for licences to run mobile cafes on the quayfront, was shot down by councillors concerned that it would give larger operators an unfair advantage.
District Manager Angela Laffan outlined the general terms of the licence scheme and a point-scoring system for the applicants, saying the local authority would invite minimum tenders of €2,000 for the quays and €1,000 each for Min Ryan Park and Carrigfoyle walking trail.
Ms. Laffan said quite a number of ratepayers had indicated they would be interested in applying for a licence as soon as the scheme was advertised and due to the anticipated number and quality of applications, it would come down to the amount tendered by the candidates.
‘I understand that there will be quite a number of good offerings’, said Ms. Laffan, adding that the next step will be to advertise an open call, with a view to issuing licences in early April, depending on Covid restrictions.
She said a set fee would result in more applicants and it would be quite difficult to separate them. The Bullring market licence is currently €2,000 and the quayfront is a more prominent location. ‘The minimum tender we would accept is €2,000 on the quayfront and €1,000 in the other areas.’
Cllr. George Lawlor disagreed with the idea of giving a licence to the highest bidder and said, to be fair, he didn’t think this is what councillors discussed at the previous meeting.
‘A big business could come in with an offer of say €10,000 and a smaller business with a great offering might only be able to afford €2,000.’
‘Yes, that would be the case but it’s completely up to yourselves to decide, said the District Manager.
Cllr. Lawlor suggested they set a tender amount as he wouldn’t like to see a competition between bigger businesses and smaller outlets. ‘I don’t think that’s the thrust of what we were going for’.
Cllr. John Hegarty said his understanding was that €2,000 was going to be the amount and there wasn’t going to be a financial competition aspect to it.
Cllr. Tom Forde supported Cllr. Lawlor, saying a set fee would be a fairer system while Cllr. David Hynes said it should be made available to as many people as possible, otherwise you might as well give it to the highest bidder.
‘The €2,000 licence fee was set in stone as far as I was concerned.’
Cllr. Maura Bell said she would not be in favour of pitting people financially against each other and was more concerned with the quality of the offering and who would be responsible for deciding what a quality offering was.
Mayor of Wexford Leonard Kelly suggested that if a number of candidates ended up with the same score, the winners could be decided by a draw from the hat.
Cllr. Hegarty said the Council would have to back the District Manager in her assessment of the candidates in terms of the quality of offering and the presentation of mobile units and if it was too close to call, it should go to a draw.
‘In light of the undoubted difficulties that Angela and her team are going to have, we need to support the criteria set down.’
Cllr. Lawlor said: ‘The amount doesn’t matter, it’s the quality of the offering and how it looks that is more important.
The Mayor asked the District Manager if she needed additional support in scoring the applicants or was she confident. ‘Yes, we are’, she replied.
He said there seemed to be broad agreement on everything except the financial element.
He formally proposed the set licence fee and this was seconded by Cllr. Lawlor and agreed by the members.