Dog’s breakfast law stops wedding fayre
Thursday 14th February 2013, 12:00PM GMT.
Guernsey Weddings assistant florist Shannon Whelan, left, and manageress Anita Jugane. The company had to cancel its March Wedding Fayre after it was informed that six of its exhibitors would not qualify for a Sunday trading licence. (Picture by Tom Tardif, 1304244)
SUNDAY trading laws have scuppered a popular wedding fayre just days before it was due to take place.
The event was meant to go ahead on Sunday at St James but event organiser Guernsey Weddings has been told that six out of its 34 exhibitors needed a Sunday trading licence but did not have one.
And in a bid to be fair to all, the owner of the company, Julie Jones, has decided to cancel.
It has directly cost her approximately £1,000 due to all the advertising, design work and preparations made. The loss in terms of revenue and returned stallholder deposits is considerably more.
St Peter Port constable Barry Cash said they had done all they could to try to get the organisers a licence but it was not possible.
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Wether you agree or not with the current Sunday Laws, they are what they are. What kind of business would commit to such a venture then shout foul after they got found out, not exactly your finest hour who ever runs the company.
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There are definitely two angles to this story. The first is why on earth organise the event on a Sunday knowing the current law? Rightly or wrongly the Sunday trading law is still around and we all know what a mess it is!
The second is ably summarised by Woody. The law is ridiculously inconsistent. It’s an embarrassment, it’s been an embarrassment for years and I cannot believe we’re still here talking about it.
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Who’s responsibility was it to check and arrange for the licences? If it was the Organisers, and they didn’t then I can understand the story in terms of the loss making the organiser has incurred.
If it was the stall holders respnsibility, then I’m not being funny, but it’s their fault. You can’t be fair to everyone in business, and in my opinion they should have carried on with the 80% of stall holders who were able to.
I can’t see how a small business can afford to lose over £1000, just by giving it back?
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How can someone who purports to be pro commerce as Director of the Guernsey Chamber of Commerce be involved in such an antiquated, anti commerce, backward thinking body like the St Peter Port Douzaine, which in its support of the dog’s breakfast laws and all the Sunday trading red tape, is responsible for putting the mockers on this event?
Time to choose Barry Cash. You are either one thing or the other. Your position as constable is shown here to be incompatible with your job as the leader of a forward thinking business organisation. Which is it going to be?
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Do we need a better illustration of the assinine nature of the Sunday Trading laws at present preventing individuals freely to choose and act as they wish?
Deputies who continue to oppose necessary reform should be listed and marked down for elimination at the next States election.
The island can no longer tolerate the obscurantist controls of those who wish to impose their anacronistic, Puritanical and antediluvian, views on others.
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eh?
Do those long words mean we need to bring our Sunday trading laws up to date?
If so, I agree.
If not, I have no odea what you mean!
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This law is so idiotic… it’s embarrassing really
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For an event like this wouldn’t it make more sense, even under the dog’s breakfast law, for the event to be licenced, not every business attending.
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They should have asked the fisherman from the uk for advice at least it only cost you a bag of sand it cost him 6 bags of sand.
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If the venue was held in a hotel would same restrictions be applied?
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What a lot of tosh it is about time The States of Guernsey woke up and changed the laws, they probably wonder why more people go to Jersey (sorry for the bad langauge). Wake up and get it done.
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Embarrassing Guernsey …….
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What’s the problem? How can it be a ‘proper’
Marriage Fayre without an Advocates’ Practice in attendance?
Not only could our most esteemed, professional erstwhile body give future advice to loved-up couples on how to emotionally shred each other up when they divorce in 3 yrs time, they could have also charged the organisers £350 an hour to negotiate with the Town Constables about trading on a Sunday.
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That’s a cheerful view of marriage you have.
Was the divorce recent? Hob knob?
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