Westminster under fire for 'preposterous situation'

Westminster's controversial approach to licensing is costing pub operators thousands of pounds in appeals.

One company, Interpub, faces a bill of at least £25,000 for a contested hearing over an application to extend opening hours at its Belushi's bar in Covent Garden to 1am.

Interpub is having to fight for an extra hour's trading because police in the West End oppose all new licences and later opening in an area that the police and council say is saturated with pubs, bars and restaurants.

The crackdown in London raises fears that other local authorities will flex their licensing muscles in the same way.

Keith Knowles (pictured)​, managing director of Interpub, said: "We've been trading for 15 years without any major problems. The police are quite up front. They have no problems with us as an operator but the policy is one of blanket objection. "It's a preposterous situation and just what we all fear will happen when licensing reform is implemented." The West End "stress zone", in which pub and bar operators face blanket police opposition, has been extended as part of a licensing crackdown.

One licensing specialist with a leading West End solicitor said police are also taking a much harder line with what should be straightforward licence renewals. He said he has seen around 15 cases of police objections in recent months, on grounds ranging from disorderly premises to the fitness of the licensee.

He said: "This has been almost unheard of until now. If the police have a problem, they should raise it well before the hearing."

A spokeswoman for the Westminster Licensees' Association said there are an increasing number of cases where the first a licensee knows about a police objection is at the licence hearing. "The strong perception among operators is that the police are taking a much tougher line in the run up to licensing reform."

Inspector Duncan Slade, newly appointed as head of the Westminster Borough Police Licensing Enforcement Unit, said that although the stress zone has been extended, operators should already be fully aware of the policy, which is blanket objection regardless of how well premises are run.

Inspector Slade added he was not aware of any increase in the number of licence objections on other grounds. He said: "We are committed to working with licensees, and our policy would not be to ambush them at court hearings. Problems should be dealt with as they arise."

Westminster operators believe there is a concerted effort to stop pubs obtaining any new rights, which would have to be recognised in the new licences to be issued by local authorities when they assume full control of licensing.

Kate Nicholls, spokeswoman for the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers, said: "We would be very concerned to see any tightening of policy on licence renewals across the country in the run up to implementation of the Licensing Act, as well as any attempt by police and local authorities to manipulate the provisions of the act for their own ends."