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SHOPS ACTS
The Council became the authority under the above Acts in
June, 1954. A general survey was made of the shops in the area
and attention was paid to the closing hours and early closing days
of various premises. These visits necessitated considerable work
outside normal hours.
Several variations in closing days and Sunday openings were
noticed and some of them have been dealt with. In addition
several warnings have been given to various shop keepers for
selling goods after closing hours.
When the duties of the Shops Acts were taken over from the
County copies of the Early Day Closing Orders were obtained and
it was noted that the district had been divided into two areas for
the purpose of early closing days, being Wednesday and Thursday
afternoons. The orders were made under the Shops Act, 1912,
on the 11th November, 1912. One order is cited as:
"Order of the Hertfordshire County Council under Section
4 (2) of "The Shops Act, 1912." fixing the day of the Weekly
Half-Holiday for non-exempted shops within the East Barnet
and New Barnet Polling Districts of the East Barnet County
Council Electoral Division within the East Barnet Valley
Urban District; and the Barnet Vale County Council Electoral
Division within the East Barnet Valley Urban District."
and the other as :
" Order of the Hertfordshire County Council under Section
4 of" The Shops Act, 1912," fixing the day of the Weekly HalfHoliday
for non-exempted shops within the Brunswick Park
Polling District of the East Barnet County Council Electoral
Division within the East Barnet Valley Urban District."
On making enquiries into the Brunswick Park Polling district
it was found that it extended over a much larger area than is at
present closing on the early closing day stated by that order. This
anomaly has existed for a considerable number of years and there
are consequently many cases in which there is a contravention
of these closing orders.
The reason that this variation arose was the extensive building
in the '30's in the Hampden Square area which previously had
been open country. These areas took the closing day of New
Barnet while they should have in fact taken the Brunswick Park
closing day. Consequently it is impracticable to enforce the early
closing day as a large number of premises are already closing on
the wrong day.
There are in the orders exceptions to early closing days which
vary with each district. This further confuses matters in this
regard consequently it is proposed during the following year to
place a full report before the Council dealing with this matter
with a view to getting the position regularised.
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