Letter from the Local Government Association
The LGA welcomes the opportunity of being able to
offer additional comments on the resource impact of the proposals.
As indicated in our initial response, the LGA welcomes
the proposals to rationalise and modernise the licensing provisions
appertaining to Sundays. It is perhaps unfortunate that the current
proposals are made so close to the publication of the Home Office
White Paper on liquor licensing review which may alter the administrative
framework more generally.
In supporting the proposals for changes to the Sunday
entertainment provisions, the Association did make the point that
whilst benefits for business were obvious in the planned changes,
these benefits should not be at the expense, disproportionately,
of increased disturbance to neighbourhoods and communities.
It is likely that local authorities will be engaged
in additional work to monitor the adherence to licence conditions
and investigate complaints of noise nuisance. For example, in
expressing the Associations concerns about the selling of alcohol
until 12.30 am we attempted to indicate that this may be a source
of increased complaints about noise disturbance. The determination
of noise nuisance remains a subjective judgement based, amongst
other things, on time of day and day of the week. Allowing drinking
into the early hours of Monday is likely to cause more people
to feel unreasonably disturbed as Monday is the beginning of the
working week. This would result in an increase of complaints to
local authorities which would then need to find the resource to
deal with them.
As with any enforcement regime, the prevention of
a problem is always more effective than a remedial solution once
a problem has occurred. It was for this reason that our original
submission proposed that local authorities should be given the
same status as the Police with regard to raising objections to
extensions of licences. We also consider that the burden of proof
should fall on the applicant to demonstrate to the licensing authority
the need for the application and the measures that will be taken
to minimise disturbance. If such measures were attached to the
extension as conditions, enforcement would be more straight forward
than having to prove noise nuisance, and thus would reduce the
resource impact for local authorities.
In conclusion, until the changes are made to the
Sunday entertainment licensing regime, it is difficult to quantify
the exact impact on local authority resources. It is possible
to say, however, that it is likely that there will be an increased
demand for local authority involvement to investigate complaints
of disturbance. As the main beneficiaries of the regime will be
licence applicants, it should be they on whom the main burden
falls to prove the need for the extension and the self regulation
measures they intend to take to prevent disturbance.
29 February 2000
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