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(c) Early Closing Day
There are no "orders" fixing the day of the weekly halfholiday.
Each shopkeeper is required to fix his Early Closing
Day and to exhibit a notice in his shop to this effect. I find no
administrative difficulties and the shopkeeper appreciates the
opportunity of being able to choose a day most suitable for his
type of business. The public, I find, are better served and not
frustrated by the closing of shops on a day fixed by "order."
Thus in Romford we have shops closing on Monday, Tuesday,
and Saturday which enables the public to shop elsewhere in the
Borough on a day when the majority of shops by custom are
closed either on Wednesday or Thursday. There are no legal
difficulties for those wishing to adopt a five-day week. Several
traders are now applying a five-day week by closing all day on
Monday.
Again the closing hour has been well observed and in the
case of the "mixed" trader remaining open for the exempted
transactions, the number opening is limited mainly to newsagents,
tobacconists and confectioners and a few food shops. The number
of offences detected has been small.
(d) Sunday Trading
The Sunday trading provisions have been rigidly enforced
in so far as the law now permits. Generally the Act has been
well observed though the used and second-hand car dealer has
confronted the authority with some difficulties. There has been
a number of successful prosecutions and the penalties imposed
appear to have been effective in the closing of these businesses on
a Sunday within the Borough.
The decision in the case of Betta Cars Ltd. v. llford Corporation
(1959) has made enforcement considerably easier (evidence
of a sale not required), on the other hand the High Court
decisions affecting food has made enforcement difficult in certain
respects, thus a loaf of bread is a refreshment or alternatively
a newly cooked provision, a kipper, is a refreshment, sugar is
Part of a meal, tea is not a refreshment. These decisions have
Placed a heavy burden both on the shopkeeper and the inspector,
who neither can adhere or apply the law with a measure of
certainty.
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