Officers issued 12 fixed penalty notices in a week on Basil Street and Exhibition Road, and now patrol seven days a week. Each fine is £150.

Enforcement officers issued 12 fixed penalty notices in a single week in the Basil Street and Exhibition Road areas, the council has said, after it began patrolling for illegal street trading seven days a week. Each notice is £150. (Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, 19 August 2026)

The traders being moved on include ice cream vans, hot dog carts and peanut sellers. The council says the extra officers carrying out the patrols are funded from existing budgets rather than new money.

Where the patrols are

The council named the places where illegal trading is known to happen and where officers are now working:

  • Exhibition Road and the museums
  • Brompton Road
  • Basil Street, near Harrods
  • Sloane Square
  • the King’s Road

Patrols can be moved elsewhere in the borough if illegal trading is reported there.

What officers can do

Trading on the highway or the footway anywhere in the borough without a street trading licence is an offence. Officers on these patrols have two tools:

  • A £150 fixed penalty notice, issued on the spot.
  • Evidence gathering that can be used to take an offender to court.

The council says the second is already having an effect on its own: some traders have stopped returning to pitches they used to work.

Why the council says it is acting

The reasons the council gives are practical rather than moral. Engines left running cause noise and air pollution. Vans and stalls create litter and block pavements and roads, getting in the way of buses and emergency vehicles. Unlicensed traders raise food safety concerns, and they undercut businesses that pay for a licence and follow the conditions.

Cllr Johnny Thalassites, the lead member for enforcement, said: “Illegal traders bring noise, pollution and disruption to some of our most popular streets, whilst undercutting legitimate firms who go about their business the correct way.”

He added: “Our officers are now on patrol every day of the week, so there’s no place to hide if you come to Kensington and Chelsea to trade illegally.”

The Carnival test comes in ten days

The patrols run into the borough’s busiest trading weekend of the year. Notting Hill Carnival is on Sunday 30 and Monday 31 August, and the council has licensed more than 250 food and drink trader stalls for it. (RBKC, 17 August 2026)

Carnival has its own arrangement. A street trading enforcement team works each night of the weekend, with officers drawn from across the council and supported by the Metropolitan Police, Parks Police, Environmental Health and Trading Standards. Those teams operate from 6am to midnight, with a further team on duty overnight, and the enforcement officer briefs colleagues on the Sunday and Monday mornings on anything found overnight. The whole Carnival area is patrolled for vehicles trading. (RBKC, street trading enforcement teams)

What it means for you

If you buy from a stall or van on the street in Kensington and Chelsea, a licence is what tells you the trader has been checked. An unlicensed seller has not been through food safety or trading standards, and the council warns that prices from unlicensed traders can be high or unclear.

If you run a shop or a licensed stall on one of the named streets, the council’s position is that the patrols exist partly for you: the enforcement case it makes leans on unfair competition as much as on litter and noise.

If illegal trading is happening on your street and it is not on the list above, the council says patrols can be redirected once it is reported.

Two things the council has not published: how long the seven-day patrols will run, and how many extra officers are on them.

Roads and closures across the borough are on our Kensington roadworks and travel page, and the full Carnival arrangements are in Notting Hill Carnival 2026: road closures, Tube and bins.

Sources