West End licensing authority accused of riding roughshod ove
by MA News Team
Furious pub operators have accused Westminster Council of ignoring the basic tenets of the Licensing Act as it deals with hundreds of applications to vary opening hours.
They claim the council's licensing committee is allowing just four and a half minutes per application, refusing to give reasons for decisions that lawyers can then argue against and imposing restrictions on pubs the Act does not allow it to impose.
Westminster is also accused of refusing pubs permission to open late when they already have 'grandfather rights' to late licences, sending out notification of licensing hearings with just five days' notice, not the statutory 10, and refusing to delay short-notice hearings to give pub operators a chance to consider the objections.
With hundreds of decisions by Westminster now heading for appeals in the magistrates' courts, the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers (ALMR) has written to LACORS, the local government co-ordinating body, to complain about the council.
ALMR chief executive Nick Bish said that with Westminster not giving operators sufficient notice to study objections, and refusing to delay hearings, it was 'no wonder' operators were fed up.
Keith Knowles, managing director of Interpub, which operates Belushi's bar in Covent Garden, said: 'You have to ask, is it (Westminster's) mission to kill off the night-time economy of the West End?'
Paul Wigham, chief executive of the Bar Group, said Westmin ster refused to postpone the hearing into the Bok Bar in Blandford Street, despite the fact that just three working days notice was given for the hearing and the incomplete objections only arrived at Bar Group HQ the morning the case was heard.
Westminster then rejected later opening even though it was within the council's own 'core hours'. Wigham said his counsel viewed Westminster's ruling as 'the most terrible set of decisions' ever witnessed. 'Apparently, it was farcical at times and even the objectors were looking embarrassed,' said Wigham.
James Kowszun, chief executive of the Hartford Group, said: 'I find the lack of consistency in the process at Westminster, which will inevitably lead to a waste of taxpayers' money, truly disgraceful.'
One solicitor who has ap-peared before Westminster City Council's licensing committee, Julian Skeens, of the firm Jeffrey Green Russell, said: 'We keep telling them some of the decisions they are making are unlawful, and they reply, 'we've been told they're not'. But they won't show us their evidence to back up their claims that what they are doing is allowed under the Act.'
The backlog of appeal hearings in Westminster will be 'impossible' to clear before 24 November, Skeens said, which could leave many pubs in limbo.
Peter Large, Westminster's deputy director of legal services, said: 'We are surprised that none of these concerns have been raised with us, either by the ALMR, or by their members or their representatives.
'Westminster is not above the law, and any decision we take can be appealed against. We are confident our decisions will be upheld by the courts on appeal.
'We are doing our best to ensure we treat all parties fairly throughout the process.'
