Late hours on Xmas Day

Related tags Special hours certificate Christmas

QCan a special hours certificate under section 77 of the Licensing Act operate on Christmas Day? No-one seems to have a clear view locally. AWhere...

QCan a special hours certificate under section 77 of the Licensing Act operate on Christmas Day? No-one seems to have a clear view locally. AWhere Christmas Day falls on a weekday (including Saturday), there appears to be no prohibition on the operation of a special hours certificate, unless one has been imposed by the justices under section 78A, or the PEL has a limitation (eg, no operation on Christmas Day). The certificate will take the hours up to 2am outside London, except where Christmas Day falls on a Sunday (as it does in 2005) when the permitted hours will end at 12.30am. This last point may or may not be academic, depending on how fast the Government moves on licensing reform. Christmas Day hours during the day, it should be noted, will be subject to the provisions of section 60(1)(c), even if an SHC is in operation via: 12noon until 3pm and then 7pm until the terminal. This can only be changed by a special order of exemption or by the operation of a section 68 certificate. Sign is inadvisable QWe've recently had some trouble with people from a nearby travellers' site. When we contact the police, they say it is up to us and that we should either ban the people or close. Would a "no travellers" sign be allowed? AThe sign "no travellers" has been held to be a discriminatory action contrary to the Race Relations Act. Gypsies have been a recognised ethnic group in England and Wales for the purposes of race relations legislation since 1988, and Irish travellers since 2000. The Commission for Racial Equality has particularly targeted "no travellers" signs in several areas. It is, therefore, inadvisable to put up a new sign of this kind. You can, of course, ban specific individuals or groups from a site if you have trouble. It is a shame that you have an issue with the local police, because they are better to have on-side than not. It might be helpful to re-engage with them through Pubwatch or a similar scheme. No need to shut club Q I am the secretary of a social club. Someone has told us that we need to notify our permitted hours to the clerk to the justices or we cannot open the bar. I have never done this formally. What should I do? AThis is an old requirement that has virtually disappeared, and it certainly doesn't mean you have to close the bar. When the permitted hours on weekdays were changed in 1988 and Sunday hours in 1995, the requirement for clubs to notify the clerk was removed for all but Christmas Day. It means that the general licensing hours for the district throughout the week apply to registered clubs in exactly the same way as they do to pubs. Now, the only requirement is to notify the clerk of Christmas Day hours, for which there is still some flexibility for clubs. In general, once the club has notified the clerk on application for renewal of registration, no further notice will be required. It may well be that this was done before you becamesecretary, and your bar is already completely covered.

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