Pubs warned: face up or shut down
Pubs could be forced to close unless they apply for premises licences before the August deadline.
Midway through the six-month period in which licensees can apply for grandfather rights, most local authorities are still complaining that they have only received a handful of applications.
Many of those which have been received have been sent back because they have been incorrectly completed. Of 103 applications for conversion sent to Westminster City Council in London, more than two-thirds are flawed.
Westminster said licensees are making simple errors such as sending in plans to the wrong scale, filling the forms out incorrectly and also sending cheques payable to the wrong people.
Licensees who fail to submit a correct application for conversion before August 6 face having to apply for a premises licence from scratch - and with the new licensing regime set to go live in November, councils are warning that may not allow them enough time.
One local authority, which preferred not to be named, said it thought that many licensees were still under the impression that they would be granted grandfather rights automatically.
Ian Harrison, principal licensing officer at Hartlepool Council said he had only received 20 of an expected 1,000 applications to date. "It concerns us greatly because the forms are not straightforward and it's easy to make a mistake and fill them in wrongly," he said. "If the majority leave it until the last minute we will not have time to process the applications. We should be getting 20 a day, but we're only getting two or three."
John Priest, environmental health and licensing manager for West Berkshire council, described the situation as "really worrying".
"Only a handful of premises needing a new licence have applied," he said. "To ensure uninterrupted trading they need to get their applications to us now. Any applications received after the deadline will mean the benefits of having held an older licence are lost and you have to start again from square one."
The Local Government Association (LGA) said licensees were facing a real headache if they failed to apply.
Cllr Bryony Rudkin, chair of the LGA's Safer Communities Board, warned: "Without the unconditional acceptance of previous rights they had, many premises may have difficulties obtaining their operational licences at all and risk finding themselves out of business."
A spokeswoman for the Department for Culture, Media & Sport said she could not comment on whether the Second Appointed Day would be put back because of the lack of applications. But she added: "At the moment everyone is still working towards the date being early November."
