Andrew Pring, Editor
In two days' time, perhaps as many as 20,000 licensees will find they have missed the cut-off point for retaining their 'grandfather licensing rights. Such is the ostrich nature of these licensees, most of them won't even know.
How are these people to be made aware of what is going on in the real world? Pubcos, local authorities, central government and the trade press have been hollering into a megaphone for months but still licensees across the nation have remained in blissful ignorance. It beggars belief that so many self-styled 'businessmen could be utterly blinkered to their business environment, but the fact is, they are and that must be the basic starting place for the next phase of the licensing sign-up programme.
Government must be deeply concerned at the low-level of application. And all the more so as licensees have probably not been as bad as the coffee shops, kebab stands, late-night takeaways and all the other sectors that supply late-night refreshment. They have, until now, had no need of this type of licence, and the majority may simply have not realised that the 2003 Licensing Act applies to them at all. Getting these sectors to understand what's required is proving a Herculean task, and one despairs at the likelihood of success. For many people, it will only be when they are prosecuted for illegal trading that they realise how negligent they have been.
On the most optimistic reading, licensees who've not bothered to date may simply feel confident that a fresh application which is what they must now proceed to make will succeed. And as there are still 16 weeks to the second appointed day, they have plenty of time to get on with it. Just what is all the fuss about? If so, you have to admire their nerve though you may call it fool-hardiness. Either way, they are certainly right that they are by no means out of the game. But, that said, the stakes have become a lot higher. And a failed application now will be that much harder to bounce back from. Legal assistance is even more vital than ever. Don't stint. As to those still in the fool's paradise that a date of 2007 on their current licence allows them to trade, it's at the stage where only advertising on national TV may reach them.