Opinion > Peter Coulson

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Peter Coulson

Views and advice on legal matters from Morning Advertiser's legal expert. You can also contact Peter and see if he can answer your legal queries on Licensing@aol.com

22-Feb-2012 - I was rather interested to read about the Cornwall nightclub owner who has installed an ID scanner so she can share information on ‘difficult’ customers with other licensees in the area.This is a subject I have dealt with regularly over many years.

Pub footy: Kitchin-sink drama goes on

20-Feb-2012 - It is not surprising that initial reactions in the trade to the latest round of the satellite TV football arguments appear rather confused (the PMA’s front page last week)

Calling time on drinking up

15-Feb-2012 - One of the main practical differences between the new Scottish Licensing Act and its English counterpart concerns drinking-up time. Section 63 of the Scottish Act retains the 15-minute drinking-up period.

Itching for licensing reform

13-Feb-2012 - We are now seven years on from the start of that frantic period of applications for new personal and premises licences, known as ‘transition’. I am beginning to get that Seven Year Itch.

How to get rid of surplus conditions

08-Feb-2012 - Still on the subject of conditions, I continue to see premises licences with a whole string of requirements, many of which appear to have little or no relevance to the current situation of the pub concerned.

Police cutbacks spell trouble

06-Feb-2012 - Last week, a number of chief constables complained that due to the stringent cuts imposed by the present Government they were in danger of losing front-line policing.

Tangled web of licensing law

01-Feb-2012 - The tangled web of modern licensing law has reached a new level recently, if the consultation document on early morning restriction orders and the late-night levy is anything to go by.

Getting a picture of police heavies

30-Jan-2012 - I have great sympathy for Michael Kheng (Operator in CCTV dispute, the PMA 19 January) in his dispute with police in Lincolnshire, who asked for footage in connection with a burglary that he refused to hand over without more specific information.

Protecting the pubs’ interests

25-Jan-2012 - Trade protection has a very different meaning these days from the time when licensed victuallers associations (LVAs) were a dominant force in the industry. Now it tends to mean preserving the pub from extinction by outside forces.

Bang the drum for live music

20-Jan-2012 - Today sees the Commons Report Stage of Lord Clement-Jones’ Live Music Bill, which has progressed more smoothly recently and had a very amiable time of it during the MPs’ committee in December, with much inter-party back-slapping and a general view that it was a good thing.

The challenge of vetting under-18s

17-Jan-2012 - The recent comment from an independent test-purchasing firm that pubs rely on doorstaff to vet under-18s is perhaps understandable for clubs and other entertainment venues with a strict ‘no-minors’ policy on entry.

Trade confronts tough times

13-Jan-2012 - The mature readers among you will remember the Frankie Howerd comedy vehicle Up Pompeii, in which a diminutive lady would come on crying: “Woe, woe and thrice woe!”

Post-loading poses problems

14-Dec-2011 - Innovative ideas in the licensed trade are like Marmite — you either love ’em or hate ’em. So it is with Bob Senior’s idea in Durham that if you can’t beat them, you try and turn a trick.

A year of change ahead

12-Dec-2011 - There will be many readers who remember the period of transition from one licensing system to another, back in 2005, as one long confusion. Certainly the protracted period of change, complexities of the forms, the delays of local authorities and general uncertainty about what was required took a very long time to sort out.

Fake IDs: Countering the counterfeit

02-Dec-2011 - I am sad to see Andrew Chevis of Citizen Card still having to bang the drum for acceptance of the Proof of Age Standards Scheme (PASS) system to be made obligatory in some way.

Musical copyright: Baying at the moon over code

30-Nov-2011 - I think that Brigid Simmonds, chief executive of the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA), is right when she calls for some kind of voluntary code on musical copyright fees.

Discrimination in the trade

28-Nov-2011 - Last week’s thought-provoking article by Dave Daly in The Guv’nor column was full of common sense about the long-standing issue of racial discrimination. In it, he counselled against going to the law, suggesting such matters should be kept in-house, and for the most part I agree with him — from his side of the bar.

Avoiding the DPS blame-game

23-Nov-2011 - There are two sides to every story. Many years ago when I used to attend licensing sessions fairly regularly, there would be occasions when a brewery representative or a solicitor stood up and told the bench that the activities which had given rise to their displeasure were all down to an unsatisfactory manager “who has since been replaced.”

Airing views on conditions

22-Nov-2011 - My recent article about minor variations provoked a strong reaction among readers who have suffered their own problems and knock-backs when they have tried to make a small change to their premises licence.

Is it just a load of hot air?

14-Nov-2011 - I recognise the wariness and scepticism of licensees when faced with a new breathalyser machine being marketed to pubs. They might think ‘what’s the come-back on me if I install one of these and something goes wrong?’

Pub gaming is under control

07-Nov-2011 - Whatever claims politicians make about the removal of red tape, those in the licensed trade know only too well that nothing actually gets any better.

Tragedy raises review queries

07-Nov-2011 - The tragic events at Lava & Ignite in Nottingham, that saw a student crushed to death, hit the headlines for obvious reasons, but the aftermath raises a couple of questions for me.

The below-cost sales minefield

01-Nov-2011 - It does not surprise me that the Government is having some difficulty in resolving the issues involved in supermarket low-cost sales (Cheap booze ban: work continues — the PMA, 20 October).

The thicket that is gambling law

27-Oct-2011 - Some of you may not agree, but I have a great deal of sympathy for local authority licensing officers. With their councils strapped for cash and looking to cut services, they still have to cope with a multitude of licensing problems, not just to do with alcohol but other licensable activities too. It is unsurprising that they need help from time to time.

Minor variations, major grief

24-Oct-2011 - I am continuing to receive reports from licensees in many parts of the country about the refusal of minor variations to their premises licences.