Cover your bases for Christmas hours

Still on the subject of extensions, it seems an appropriate time to review this year's Christmas period, and in particular special parties that you may have lined up.

But remember that it is not open to the holder of a licence to seek an extension for his own party or commercial event.

You cannot set up a Christmas surprise buffet as a promotional idea and then expect the justices to grant you a one-off extension that they haven't given to others.

The event must be one for which you are catering by special request, and you should be in a position to show evidence of the need for the extension.

Even if it is outside the declared extension period, no court office has the power to refuse an application duly made, which I have recently heard has happened to one reader.

Of course, if the magistrates decide, after hearing the application, that the occasion is not special or does not warrant an extension, then they are entitled to say so.

Except in the London area, where the police administer special orders of exemption and have set their own rules, the bench will not allow a written application for an extension unless it is made at least one month in advance by sending two copies to the clerk.

This means that any reader who wants to beat the Christmas deadline has got to get his skates on.

However, even the deadline will not prevent personal application to the ordinary magistrates' court.

It is interesting to note that there is absolutely no legal requirement to give any notice of such an application, although it is normal to do so in some way.

Unlike other forms of application, there is no requirement in the Licensing Act to notify the police or anyone else in advance.

However, because the granting of extensions is discretionary, it is not advisable to antagonise the bench by trying to take them unawares.

One final word of advice. Do check to make sure that you have actually applied and paid for your Christmas extensions.

Some people still assume that the court allows it for everyone, by announcing it in advance. It doesn't work that way.

If you do not have a piece of paper granting extensions to your pub, then you don't have any extra time. So check it out.