Legal advice: Problems of planning
By David Clifton of thePublican.com's team of legal experts from London solicitors Joelson Wilson
The timing of approval by Parliament of the final draft guidance to the Licensing Act 2003 is crucial because it will trigger the formal consultation processes by local licensing authorities, leading to adoption of their individual licensing policies.
These policies will determine how all future licensing applications will be treated. One of the most draconian of policies is expected to be the City of Westminster's. It is expected that many local authorities will be looking to follow Westminster's lead.
The recently published planning inspector's report on Westminster's unitary plan development review, may have bearing on the council's new licensing policy. The report says:
- control of land use (by the planning process) is the most direct way of dealing with anti-social behaviour or disturbance
- identification of stress areas, in which clear and present problems of public order exist is justified
- comparative incidence of crime within the whole of Westminster is the proper basis to assess designation of a stress area
- added responsibility must rest on the local planning authority to consider the imposition of time limiting conditions in relation to opening hours on new A3 planning consents
- the staggering of terminal hours would remove the problems of congestion and disturbance
- judicious and variable density or capacity standards should be applied (as planning conditions) to all A3 and D2 premises.
It may well be that the main focus of contested applications for new pubs will shift from the licensing to the planning arena. Or it may be that the two main hurdles for new pub operators to overcome will be raised higher still in the future.
