Legal advice: Get streetwise with drinking

Permission may be required for outside seating

by Richard Williams of thePublican.com's legal team of experts from London solicitors Joelson Wilson.​

It doesn't seem that long ago that I last wrote about external drinking areas, but the warm weather has come early this year and we are receiving numerous enquiries about creating outside drinking areas. If you have identified an area that you would like to use as a street café, here is a quick checklist:

• check your deeds. You may own the area in question. If you do, the process is a lot simpler and you will be entitled to put tables and chairs on this area (subject to planning consent). You may want to consider marking the area you own, with planters or a low fence, for example.
  
  Ensure you do not obstruct any fire exits opening on to the street with either the furniture or the fencing material. If you have an on-licence without conditions preventing off sales, then your customers will be able to take drinks outside to consume them.

if you own the area, you may want to apply to extend your licensed area to cover the outside area. This is called an alterations application under Section 20 of the Licensing Act 1964.

This will allow you to take orders and serve drinks by waiter/waitress service outside. You will need plans showing the existing and proposed licensed areas and these will need to be approved by the licensing committee. Discuss the application with the police before submitting it.

if you do not own the area it may be a public highway or owned by the local authority, especially if it is a pavement. If this is the case, you will need to obtain the council's consent to place tables and chairs on the highway.

Phone the council and request an application form to permit this. It will send you a form to complete and a fee will be required. Some councils are more strict about requirements than others and some do not have a formal application procedure. Certain councils will ask to see specifications for the tables and chairs you are proposing to use, to ensure that they will not be an eyesore. You will also need to confirm that you are insured if somebody falls and hurts themselves on the external area. These applications can take several months to be processed, so get them in as soon as possible.

check with the council whether there are any street drinking bans in your area that would make it an offence to consume alcohol outside. Some councils will only permit the consumption of soft drinks outside.

once the necessary licence has been granted, note the expiry date. You will need to apply for renewal of the licence every year.

if you install patio heaters, make sure that these are properly maintained and are not dangerous. Do not allow customers to tamper with the settings.

Put your furniture out and enjoy the fine weather and the resulting boost in trade.