Drink Talking: Tony Brookes

Civil servants have really messed up with over-complicated licence guidelines, says Tony Brookes, managing director, Head of Steam pubs.

The approach of August 6 heralds disaster for many licensed trade operators if they don't get their application forms in for conversion to the new premises licence on time. The whole process of making the application is daunting, even if you are au fait with legal matters. Some of the council policy documents seem deliberately worded to encourage people to give much more information than needed by law. Many are asking for huge, frightening full-scale risk assessments of everything to do with your pub's operation, but are failing to make it clear that this is only necessary when applying for a variation.

If you have a public entertainment licence that expires after August 6 but before November 24, theoretically you have - most unfairly - to pay a full year's fee and make a full application.

The civil servants have really messed up big-style this time. The conversion to the new licence should have been kept separate to any variations.

The guidance notes for conversion should have been produced by the government in a really simple way, preferably with an example. They should have been geared towards being able to be completed by the least able people, with the least legal training, and the least money.

Fees could have been dramatically reduced, if the council work on the applications had been basically a rubber stamp job, with little room for error to have been made. Is every little street-corner off-licence owner, possibly lacking perfect skills in English, going to get their applications in by August 6? I'll bet they won't.

And by the way, the government is also going to mess up smoking legislation - you can just see it coming, can't you? It really is an absolute bag of worms.

Sometimes I think my kids' pet rabbit could do better than our legislators - and it's been dead for years!