A Bristol university has obtained a food licence for an entire campus to help ensure none of its students go hungry during the coronavirus pandemic, writes Amanda Cameron.

The University of the West of England received permission for the block street trading licence for its Frenchay Campus despite local residents’ concerns it would heighten existing problems with litter and anti-social behaviour.

The annual licence, which does not include alcohol, will enable the university to hold street-style food events on an ad-hoc basis across the entire campus as soon as Covid-19 restrictions permit.

Katie Bruce from UWE told a licensing committee it would mean students would be able to buy food outdoors, where it is safer, as well as indoors, where space is restricted because of social distancing requirements.

It would also give the university the flexibility to hold pop-up food events after supermarkets and food delivery companies refused to deliver groceries on site during the pandemic, she added.

The campus is currently home to 1,200 students, most of whom are self-isolating for two weeks after flying in from countries outside the UK, she said.

Ms Bruce said: “We could still be dealing with the pandemic towards the end of the year, and we just want to be prepared.

“We want to be able to supply food to the students.”

The university applied for a seven-day block street trading licence for up to 25 traders at any one time to replace a similar licence that expired in December last year.

The application sought the same hours, 7am to 11pm, but expanded the footprint of the licence to include the car park of the Nightingale Hospital, the buildings once owned by Hewlett Packard, the new engineering building and plaza, and the main bus stop.

The committee granted the larger footprint but limited the hours to between 8am and 8pm to address concerns from two local residents that it would heighten existing problems with students gathering in groups on the fringes of the campus, drinking, taking drugs, making a noise, being anti-social, littering, and breaching coronavirus regulations.

There were no objections to the application from police.

Ms Bruce told the committee she was “confident” the new licence would not result in problems for residents.

She said the university planned to use the licence mostly during the core hours of 8am and 5pm, and had a host of measures in place to address residents’ concerns.

These included covered seating in the main plaza area flanked by bins to encourage students to eat their food and dispose of their litter on campus.

“The day-to-day operation [of the licence] would be two to three market traders acting as an extension to the campus facility…during the university opening times,” she said.

“We require flexibility to move stalls around different areas and different time scales given short notice to act.

“In preparation for ad-hoc market street-style events we’d need the flexibility to host 10 or 15 market stalls in one fixed plaza location yet still maintain our day-to-day provision of two to three, making a potential use of 19 or 20 street traders when including our evening provision.

“I believe we uphold a good track record in managing and combating public nuisance and have successfully operated street trading for the last three years.

“It is further helped with our safeguarding and operational process to combat litter and anti-social behaviour along with the new taskforce in relation to Covid-19.”

The South Gloucestershire Council committee granted the licence on Tuesday, January 12, provided the university follows coronavirus and public health regulations.

ENDS