Council predicts licence meltdown

Westminster fearful of rising costs and red tape

by The PMA Team

The new licensing regime will prove expensive and frustrating for licensees with many councils unable to cope its demands.

That is the view of Simon Milton, leader of Westminster City Council, who forecasts that "licensing" and "alcohol" are set to become electoral issues as councils cut services to meet the cost of carrying out the new licensing duty.

He said: "I'm very pessimistic about the new regime. Councils always grumble but I'd be hard pushed to find another piece of legislation that's united councils in terms of saying Government has this wrong.

"Everyone is stumbling into an incredibly serious situation and licensees will not be happy with what comes out of the other end.

"It will also be far more expensive for licensees in the long run ­ many local authorities will fail to process applications from licensees within the time limits.

"A lot are saying we'll wash our hands of this and let the magistrates deal with it'.

"The fees for administering licensing are well short of what we were led to expect ­ councils will either have to cut costs or increase the council tax.

"I think we'll see a wave of discontent that will make alcohol an electoral issue for the first time in 150 years."

Westminster City Council is facing a £2m shortfall because the Government has failed to understand the cost of administering licences and has developed new levels of bureaucracy. Its licensing team will have to double in size to deal with 3,600 personal licence applications.

Milton added: "Far from making the licensing procedure simpler the proposals are going to drown the trade and local authorities in unnecessary paperwork and burdensome red tape.

"The only winners will be the solicitors tied up in costly and time-consuming licensing representations."

He claimed that each premises application will involve 200 pages of paperwork ­ a 22-page application will need sending to nine different consultees.

Alex Salussolia, chairman of the Westminster Licensees Asso-ciation (WLA), said Westminster had contributed to the red tape by making application forms "more onerous" than need be.

This week, the WLA condemned Westminster's own licensing policy, describing it as a lawyer's charter. The organisation said it was "prescriptive, bureaucratic, complicated and costly" and would lead to a stagnant West End.