Local authorities in crisis meeting over licensing

Local authorities are coming together at a crisis meeting today to discuss ways of averting the looming disaster surrounding licence applications.

Council chiefs meeting today (May 19) are expected to agree an action plan aimed at getting more licensees to file correct applications for the new licences before the August 6 deadline for grandfather rights.

Councils across the country have been raising alarms about the lack of applications, with the Local Government Association (LGA) estimating that as little as five per cent of the expected volume has so far been received.

Eight out of every 10 applications are being rejected because they have been incorrectly filled out.

Pubs which fail to apply risk being forced to close later this year.

Actions due to be discussed by officials at the meeting of the LGA Executive include:

• Lobbying for a delay to the Second Appointed Day (SAD), from which date all pubs and licensees must have new licences - currently scheduled for November
• Pushing central government to give councils a more flexible approach to applications
• Prompting Parliamentary questions and Early Day Motions highlighting the issue in the House of Commons
• A full-blown media campaign, aimed at ensuring licensees have no excuses for not being fully up to speed.

Councillor Bryony Rudkin, chair of the LGA's Safer Communities Board, said: "The LGA Executive is meeting to identify what it can do to help.

"We will continue to raise the issue with ministers, bring this to their attention and lobby hard to ensure that everything is done to ensure this transition goes as smoothly as possible."

The LGA is believed to be ready to add to calls from the BII and Westminster Licensees Association, among others, for new licensing minster James Purnell to formally put back the SAD.

Chief inspector Jon Donnery, who chairs the National Police Licensing Forum, said a delay to the SAD would now be "prudent".

"It should be delayed a month or so to ensure that everyone can start on an equal footing," he said.

But a delay was looking no more likely this week, with the British Beer & Pub Association saying it would be the wrong approach.

Communications manager Christine Milburn said: "We think it is premature to start speculating in the middle of May on what could happen in August. It is more important to focus on making sure licensees have the correct information in front of them."

A spokeswoman for the Department for Culture Media & Sport said the government was continuing to work towards the SAD falling in early November.

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