Memorandum by LGS UK (RL 05)
We are chartered surveyors who act as agents
for applicants under the Licensing Act 2003 and trainers for Licensing
Authorities. We have experienced a broad range of interpretation
by Licensing Authorities during the conversion period. So far
we have three main areas of concern.
PUBLIC NOTICES
1. The law requires that variation applications
should be advertised by window notice and public notice as follows:
— Prominently displaying an A4, pale
blue notice which can be conveniently read from the exterior of
the premises for a period of no less than 28 days from the day
after the day of the application.
— By publishing a notice in a local
newspaper within 10 working days from the day after the day of
the application.
2. The content of a public notice is specified
in The Licensing Act 2003 (Premises Licences & Club Premises
Certificates) Regulations 2005. Reg 26 requires a "brief
description" of the application in addition to the matters
prescribed in (a) to (f) below:
(a) the name of the applicant (or club);
(b) the address of the premises;
(c) the address (including the worldwide
web address) of the licensing authority;
(d) the date by which an interested party
or responsible authority may make representations;
(e) that representations shall be made in
writing; and
(f) that it is an offence knowingly or recklessly
to make a false statement in connection with an application and
the maximum fine for which a person is liable on summary conviction
for the offence.
3. The notice must also state that "the
application may be inspected at the Council office during normal
working hours etc" and there is nothing in Reg 26 requires
the listing of timings.
4. The Licensing Act 2003 S17(5)(a)(ii)
requires the SoS to make regulations to advertise applications
in a manner which is likely to "bring the application to
the attention of the interested parties" etc and S8 requires
the Licensing Authority to keep a public register containing the
matters listed in Schedule 3 which includes the full details of
an application, which interested parties may view.
5. The S182 Guidance, which pre dated the Regulations,
does refer to hours however this same guidance also referred to
an A3 sized notice. At the time of writing this guidance it was
not envisaged that applicants would also be required to advertise
their applications by way of public notice.
5.52 Regulations governing the advertising
of applications for the grant or variation or review of premises
licenses will be contained in secondary legislation made by the
Secretary of State and can be viewed on the DCMS website. They
include the requirement that a brief summary of the application
setting out matters such as the proposed licensable activities
and the proposed hours of opening should be clearly displayed
on an A3 size notice immediately on or outside the premises for
the period during which representations may be made, together
with information about where the details of the application may
be viewed. So far as possble, as well as putting in place arrangements
for interested parties to view a record of the application in
the licensing register as described in Schedule 3 to the 2003
Act, it is expected that licensing authorities will also include
these details on their websites. Charges made for copies of the
register should not exceed the cost of preparing such copies.
6. The more recent DCMS Guidance notes to
applicants (June 2005) states:
Description of nature of proposed variation
You should briefly describe what changes you
wish to make to your licence. If this means changing the premises
in any way, for example by changing the boundary or perimeter,
you should give a full description of that change and include
plans.
7. A number of Councils insist on the inclusion
of ALL opening, alcohol and regulated entertainment times in addition
to the matters prescribed by Reg 26 in both the window notice
and the press notice. The result is large expensive public notices
which still do not provide the complete picture.
8. The Oxford English Dictionary defines
brief as "concise; using few words" and the Act requires
that the application should be brought to the attention of interested
parties and that the application can be inspected at the Council
offices. I would content that the law expects an interested party
to examine the detail of an application before making a representation.
The purpose of the notice is to "bring the application to
the attention of the interested parties" (S17) not detail
large parts of the application in the newspaper.
9. Reg 26 should clarify the exact content
of a notice.
FLOOR PLANS
10. Regulation 23 of The Licensing Act 2003
(Premises Licences & Club Premises Certificates) Regulations
2005 state that plans are required to a prescribed scale of 1:100
and show the information detailed in 23(3) (a) to (j). The Licensing
Authority is allowed to accept an alternative scale and most Licensing
Authorities are prepared to accept a range of scales.
11. In cases where the applicant has an
existing plan we assess the standard of the plan and whether it
shows the information detailed in 23(3) (a) to (j). If the plan
is in a "worst scale" ie 1:200 or 1:500 then we ask
the Licensing Authority if the plan is acceptable (in most cases
they accept). However when we receive a plan in a "better
scale" ie 1:75 or more typically 1:50 then we have submitted
direct to the Council.
12. In a number of these cases the Licensing
Authority has invalidated the application due to the scale of
the plan, which is better than the regulations require. In most
of these cases we have managed to negotiate the acceptance of
the plan however for one application the Council refused to accept
a 1:50 plan prepared by an Architect which showed all of the relevant
information because it was not 1:100.
13. Regulation 23 should stipulate that
1:100 is a minimum standard.
HEARINGS
14. The Licensing Act 2003 (Hearings) Regulations
2005 state in Reg 24 that "Licensing Authority must allow
the parties an equal maximum period of time in which to exercise
their rights". S13 of the Act defines what is meant by an
"interested party" and "responsible authority"
and with the applicant I presume these form what the hearings
regulations describe as parties to the hearing.
15. The hearings regulations do not specify
how a hearing should be conducted and this has led to a range
of procedures. The majority have been acceptable however some
Councils specify maximum times which are applied to each party.
For instance the applicant is allowed 10 minutes then each "interested
party" and "responsible authority" is also allowed
10 minutes. In a case with say three responsible authorities and
three residents this would mean 10 minutes for the applicant and
one hour for objectors (6*10 minutes). The worst example of this
practice was a Council who allowed three minutes per party.
16. Such a bias in total presentation times
clearly restricts the applicants access to a fair hearing.
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