For a number of years Shareshill, Staffordshire has suffered greatly from the impact of so-called "car boot sales" on every Sunday and bank holiday from Easter till nearly Christmas.  I’m sure many more communities are blighted in the same way.  We are not talking about the sort of event that a school or playgroup might hold to raise funds.    These are unlicensed, unregulated markets with many traders who do this for a living, with or without the knowledge of Inland Revenue.  Whilst many sellers are honest and legitimate there are also the characters selling counterfeit goods, pirated DVDs and CDs, and property stolen in burglaries and break-ins around the region.  These events destroy the quiet rural nature of our village. 

When these markets lay siege to our village the main trunk road and country lanes are  blocked by queues of traffic.   The worst of "Sunday drivers" add to the chaos by pulling out into oncoming traffic causing accidents and many near-misses.  Our grass verges get rutted and turned into mud by the "clever" drivers who don't think they can manage to drive onto the allotted field. 

These events are supposed< to be limited to just 14 per year per.  To get around this they just move from field to field to ensure that boot sale misery lasts for all but the winter months.  These so-called "boot sales" need to be regulated to protect both the consumers who trudge around them and the rural community which suffers as a result. 

A petition has been set up on the Downing Street website for to sign.  It proposes that 'car boot operations'or anything similar are all licensed from the 'first' one by the Local Planning Authority and that no further 'licence' be granted to any Operator within 10 days and 7 mile radius (unless Ancient Market Rights are held etc) within any Council Fiscal Year.  However the proposal will allow genuine charity 'Car Boot Sales' within properties described as 'Public or Civil Buildings'. 

To sign the petition you need to fill in your details and then click on the link which the Downing Street site emails to you.  

Dos your village suffer from the same blight?    If so perhaps you might consider promoting the petition and adding a link to it at: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/CarBootMarkets/#detail.     

The Shareshill Village website. www.shares.f9.co.uk  has a link from its home page to a "more details" page and from there to the petition. 

Many thanks for taking the time to consider this.

Regards 

John Taylor

Shareshill webmaster